Hand Over My Body
by Chellerbelle
Summary: Gambit and Rogue have been hired by the X-men to rescue Nate Summers from Sinister. Kitty, stuck in phase, is disintegrating faster than her clone body can form, but there may be a way to save her mind with Rogue's help. Part of the Thieves Guild series.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:**

This story comes after _King of Thieves _and _There is No Questhelper in Real Life._ You could probably read this without reading the preceding stories, but I wouldn't recommend it. However, _There is No Questhelper in Real Life_does set things up for this story and catches you up/acts as a reminder for the other stories in this series.

Thanks to Hopey Hannigan for her invaluable help with the parenting stuff in this story. Any mistakes are my own.

Also thanks to LizzieTurbo for her suggestion way back when I just finished writing _King of Thieves_ involving certain phone calls Gambit ends up getting during this story.

There will be regular references to _World of Warcraft_. As always, I will do my best to ensure that those who are not familiar with the game do not get confused. For those who _are_ familiar with WoW, this story begins not quite two months after the release of the Cataclysm expansion pack. Finally, it should be noted that I'm an altaholic, I've only used Vent once, and I haven't played any endgame instances or raids. I apologise in advance for any mistakes.

* * *

><p><strong>Hand Over My Body<strong>

**Chapter 1**

While Rogue packed up their things in the hotel room they had been staying in for their honeymoon, Gambit turned his phone on for the first time in two weeks. He grunted to himself when he found five messages on his phone, and wondered why people couldn't leave a man alone so he could spend some time with his wife. It wasn't like Henri didn't know they were on their honeymoon.

A little reluctantly, Gambit put the phone to his ear and listened to the waiting messages. To his annoyance, he realised the date of the first message was the first day they arrived. He was a little surprised, however, when instead of hearing Henri's or Emil's voice, he heard Storm's:

_"Hi Remy, this is Storm. I can't believe I'm saying this but... I need to hire the Thieves Guild."_

Gambit couldn't believe he heard her say it either. He knew she had reformed as a thief when she joined the school, and despite keeping her lock picking skills in practice he also knew that she no longer intended to steal anything. The next message was a few days later.

_"Hi Remy, Storm again. I hadn't heard back from you so I thought I'd better call and make sure you got my message. Please call me as soon as you get this."_

Gambit grimaced. If he had realised he might get a serious call he would have actually checked his phone.

_"Hi Remy. Just had a call from 'Ro," _said Henri's voice. _"She seems pretty anxious to talk to you, but I'm guessing you're just not answering your phone while you're on your honeymoon."_

_"Hi Remy, Storm here again. I just spoke to Henri and he told me that you're on your honeymoon. I hope that you and Rogue are having a good time. Please call me as soon as you can."_

_"All hail King Remy!"_ said Emil's voice.

Gambit groaned and made a mental note to officially appoint Emil as the 'court jester'. Clearly Emil thought Gambit was bluffing when he said he'd do that. He deleted the messages off his phone and located Storm's number in his contact list.

"Hello?" Storm said upon answering her phone.

"Hey Stormy," Gambit said cheerfully. "I just got your message. Well, messages. Looks like I got the first one right at the start of our honeymoon. Sorry, I didn't call back sooner. Stuff went down with the Guild recently, and I was half expecting to get prank or nagging phone calls, so I switched it off."

"I can understand that," Storm said. "I do not think I would like to be contacted during my honeymoon either."

"So, what's so important you have to talk to me about it?" Gambit asked, watching while Rogue came out of the bathroom to drop their gear into one of the bags. "If you had a job, you could have just run it by Henri. He could have gotten someone else on it sooner."

"I realise that, but it's not exactly a conventional steal," Storm said. "Have you heard of Mister Sinister?"

"By reputation," Gambit replied, lying down on the bed with his legs hanging off the side. "That's quite enough for me."

"He's kidnapped a little boy—"

"So what else is new?"

"—he's two, almost three years old," Storm went on.

Gambit frowned. "That seems a little young. I didn't think he collected mutants until after they manifested. Although I guess there are some mutants that manifest at birth, even if it's only partially."

"He's second generation," Storm said. "We've already made two attempts to rescue him."

"And you want me to collect him," Gambit said, rubbing his forehead. "No offence, Stormy, but what makes you think this kid is even still alive? Or that there's anything left of his body to bury?"

"Because our second team—who got into the base while Sinister was moving out—found evidence of a nursery in the most secure part of the base," Storm replied, hating Gambit's line of questions, but unable to accuse him of being unreasonable. "It was empty, but it had _Thomas the Tank Engine _artwork on the walls."

Gambit was silent for a moment as he attempted to process that.

"_Thomas the Tank Engine_?" he said finally.

"Yes."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, my brain is having trouble processing this," Gambit said and didn't notice the strange look Rogue was giving him. "Sinister and _Thomas the Tank Engine_."

"We had similar reactions," Storm replied, sounding amused. "But it either means he intends on taking care of Nate, or he's an avid fan and has been keeping some sort of _Thomas the Tank Engine _shrine in his lab."

"Well, we all have our hobbies," Gambit said, sitting up. "Wow. Okay. I guess that'll do for proof the kid's still alive."

"We know where the new base is. We have no idea of layout or anything, unless the old base is any indication," Storm said. "The sooner you can join us, the better. You were going to accept the job, right?"

"Henri'll kill me when he finds out, but yes," Gambit said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Okay, Rogue and I have a flight back to New Orleans to catch. We'll pick up Olivier and I guess there's no point in unpacking if we're going up to New York straight away."

"We'll be happy to pick you up in the Blackbird as soon as you're ready," Storm said.

"Heh," Gambit said. "I'll give you a call then. Give me twenty-four hours."

"I'll make sure a room's ready for you, Rogue, and Olivier."

They said their goodbyes and hung up. Gambit realised Rogue was looking at him curiously from their collection of packed suitcases.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"Storm's just hired us to rescue a kid from Sinister," Gambit replied, pushing himself up off the bed.

"Who's Sinister?"

"You don't know?" Gambit asked and Rogue shook her head. "He experiments on mutants. But unlike Stryker, Sinister doesn't experiment on mutants because he wants to wipe them out, he does it because he believes mutants are the next stage of evolution and is obsessed with creating the 'ultimate' mutant."

Rogue raised her eyebrows. "Right."

"He employs his own gang of mutants to do all his dirty work," Gambit went on, taking hold of one of the suitcases. "They're called the Marauders. Do you have the keycard?"

Rogue pulled the electronic hotel key out of her pocket to show him.

"Marauders. I've heard that name before," she said thoughtfully, putting it back in her pocket and grabbing one of her bags. "I just can't think where..."

"Well, Sinister recruits the toughest and nastiest mutants out there," Gambit went on as he opened up the heavy hotel door and Rogue slung another bag over her shoulder. "Killers, all of them. He's attempted to recruit some of the mutants in the Assassins Guild before, but they couldn't agree on terms."

"Couldn't agree on terms?" Rogue queried as she walked through the doorway.

"Occasionally the Guilds contract people out," Gambit replied, following her and letting the door shut behind him.

"I know that."

"He didn't want to employ them through the Guild though, he wanted to employ them directly and he wanted DNA samples from them," Gambit said as they walked down the hallway.

"Yeah, I can see why they wouldn't agree to that. Never tried to force the issue?"

"What's he going to do? Send his Marauders after them?" Gambit asked.

Rogue snickered and pressed the down button on the elevator. "Good point."

* * *

><p>"So what did 'Ro want?" Henri asked as he drove Gambit and Rogue home after picking them up from the airport.<p>

"She had a job for me," Gambit replied.

"And you told her you'd arrange another Thief to take the job, right?" Henri said.

"Non—"

"Remy—"

"I accepted it myself."

"Remy, you can't," Henri said, glaring at him while Rogue smirked in the back seat. "You're retired remember? You have responsibilities as the Patriarch of the Thieves Guild."

"Oui, I do," Gambit replied calmly, having expected his brother to blow up with this exact line of objections. "And as Patriarch I cannot in good conscience send anyone but the best for this job, and that happens to be me."

"Oh come on, Remy," Henri said scornfully. "What in the world could the X-men possibly want that would require 'the best'? Seriously?"

"Breaking into Mister Sinister's base."

Henri was rendered silent for a moment.

"Okay fine then," he reluctantly conceded.

"And I won't send anyone who's incapable of holding their own against an Assassin," Gambit went on. "Mutants are preferable because at least we know that Sinister will prefer to capture them rather than kill them outright. Although is being experimented on really a preferable option to being dead? I don't know. The point is that if something does go wrong, they still have a chance to escape, which you don't have if you're dead."

"It's better not to get caught in the first place," Henri said.

"I agree," Gambit replied. "Which is why I'm sending me. Come on, Henri; can you honestly think of someone better for the job than me?"

"Yeah, I can," Henri said. "Anyone _but_ you."

"Henri—"

"You're the Patriarch, Remy! You only just took the position. You can't just go gallivanting off doing your own thing all the time."

"Becoming Patriarch was not my idea," Gambit retorted hotly. "You and Père just sprung that on me at the last minute. You're the ones who decided to dump this on me right before my honeymoon, so if you don't damn well like me not being there the last few weeks it's your own damn fault. Besides, you practically run the Guild yourself anyway—"

"That's not the point—"

"I don't care! Look, Rogue, Oli, and I are going to New York. We're going to check things out, do the damn job, and come back. There's no reason why you can't contact me if anything comes up that needs my personal attention or intervention or whatever. Believe me, I want to do this job as quickly as possible without putting anyone in danger," Gambit said, mindful of this 'Nate' Storm wanted him to rescue.

"And what is it exactly that the X-men what you to steal, anyway?" Henri asked.

Gambit paused. "You're not going to like it."

"I already don't like it."

"A kid."

"Merde."

"He's a toddler. They have good reason to think he's even alive still," Gambit said.

"Remy," Henri replied tersely as he drove, "you may have missed this on orientation day, but we're Thieves, not heroes."'

"Henri—"

"I realise this may come as a shock to you after your daring rescue of Avril a couple of months ago, but it's true all the same. We're not even Robin Hood style thieves; we steal for our own benefit."

"No!" Gambit replied, pretending to be shocked at the very idea. "You don't say?"

"I do say."

"My mind is completely blown."

"That's what I thought."

"Dorks," Rogue said.

Gambit twisted in his seat to grin wickedly at her.

"Come on, Henri," Rogue went on. "Does it really matter if he's stealing a kid instead of...documents or whatever?"

Henri was silent for a moment, and then said: "The X-men don't get this as a freebie because 'Ro's our friend, or because the prize is a kid."

"Noted," Gambit said.

"I'm serious, Remy," Henri said. "We're not running a charity here."

"Well, you did just point out we're not Robin Hood style thieves. I kinda think that covers that," Gambit replied irritably.

"And if they want the best of us, they pay for it."

"I get it already, Henri," Gambit said glaring at him.

Henri muttered something about 'damn heroics' and the conversation fell flat.

* * *

><p>Some hours later, Rogue wearily stepped off the Blackbird into the underground hanger of the Xavier Institute. She had the fat baby bag slung over her shoulder, and was carrying a very cranky Olivier in her arms. Gambit and Storm followed her out with their luggage.<p>

"Rogue, hey," Jubilee said racing over to them. "How was the trip? It's Olivier, right? Hey Olivier!"

Olivier did not appreciate Jubilee's attempts to be friendly and immediately burst into loud wails.

"Hey Jubes," Rogue said, and turned her attention to her son. "Shh, Oli, it's okay. This is a friend. Yes, I know you're tired and your routine's all out of whack, but believe me, it's okay."

Jubilee bit her lip, wanting to apologise for upsetting him, and not wanting to upset either of them by speaking up at an inappropriate moment.

"Come on," Storm said. "We'll get you settled in, and then we'll deal with the briefing later."

"Can we deal with the briefing tomorrow?" Gambit asked as he followed Storm out of the hanger with their things. "All this travelling is taking its toll."

"Tomorrow will be fine," Storm said. "Would you like to eat dinner with us tonight, or in the privacy of your own room?"

"Let's go for the privacy tonight," Gambit said.

"All right. I'll have someone send you down something."

"Merci."

* * *

><p>Sometime later there was a careful knock at the door and Gambit opened it to find Kurt standing there with a tray.<p>

"Good evening," Kurt said, raising the tray slightly. "I come bearing dinner."

"Merci," Gambit said, holding the door open wider so that Kurt could come in. "How have you been?"

"Well, thank you," Kurt replied, glanced around the room, and put the tray on the table. "And yourselves?"

"We're good," Rogue said whilst rolling a ball back and forth with Olivier. "Mr Cranky-pants over here has finally cheered up. Of course, any minute now he's going to start wailing for dinner, isn't that right, sugah?"

"Buh," was all Olivier had to say about the matter, and he happily pushed the brightly coloured ball back to his mother.

Rogue smiled and caught the ball.

"Hey Oli," she said. "You remember your Uncle Kurt, dontcha?"

Kurt knelt down to Olivier's level. Olivier looked at him and started crying and reaching out for his mama.

"Aww, what's wrong, Oli? You didn't cry at all when you met Uncle Kurt the first time," Rogue said. "Sorry Kurt. He's objected to everyone today."

"You should have heard the ruckus he caused when Storm had the audacity to pick up him," Gambit said wryly.

Kurt chuckled.

"He even complained when we got back from our honeymoon," Gambit asked, considered and then went on musingly: "Maybe that's the problem. Maybe he's just concerned we're going to leave him again."

"Maybe," Rogue said with a shrug. "It's been a pretty chaotic day for him so..."

"Also true."

"Well," Kurt said, standing up again. "I shall take my leave. Breakfast will be a buffet in the dining hall tomorrow morning at the usual time. I won't be there; I already had plans to breakfast with Kitty, Betsy, and Hank in the medlab, but I'll see you after breakfast for the briefing."

"The medlab?" Rogue asked, giving him a puzzled look. "Why there?"

"Because Kitty... Storm hasn't told you yet?"

"Told us what?"

Kurt took a deep breath, considering the best way to explain this.

"One of Sinister's Marauders is a man named Harpoon, likely named because he carries around harpoons," Kurt said. "He charges them with bio-kinetic energy."

"Heard of him," Gambit said with a nod.

"Well, he threw one of those charged harpoons at Kitty while she was in phase," Kurt said gravely. "The charge disrupted the connections between her molecules and now she can't solidify. Her molecules are drifting further and further apart. Initially, she only had a few days before she would have disintegrated completely, but a friend of Hank's, Forge, was able to build a containment chamber to buy her a few more months."

"Merde," Gambit said, with a glance at Rogue. "Remind me never to throw one of my cards through you when you're using Kitty's powers."

Rogue just looked back at him with a sick look of horror on her face. Sure, Kitty hadn't exactly been on her list of favourite people these last few years, but that didn't mean she wanted Kitty to die.

"She can't leave the containment chamber, and if we move the containment chamber we risk decreasing Kitty's life faster," Kurt went on. "So she's been staying in the medlab. Betsy has been staying with her, mostly because her telepathy has been our only way of talking with Kitty. The good news is—"

"There's good news?" Rogue asked disbelievingly.

"There's always good news," Kurt replied. "In this case on the same trip to Sinister's base that Kitty got hurt, we also managed to, umm, acquire one of his cloning chambers. We're in the process of cloning Kitty now, and we're hoping that the containment chamber will sustain Kitty long enough for Betsy to be able to transfer her mind across to the new body."

"Hoping?" Rogue said.

"We're not exactly sure how long the cloning process takes," Kurt admitted. "Hank and Forge are estimating a few months."

Rogue nodded.

"You should probably know that Betsy is also in a different body from the last time you saw her," he said, paused and then added: "I assume you have met her before?"

"Yeah, briefly, during the Sentinel business last year... well, the year before now. Why? What's happened?"

"Her original body was killed by Sabretooth while her mind was on the astral plane," Kurt said. "She found refuge in the body of a clone of a woman named Kwannon. Originally, we took the cloning chamber in the hope of cloning Betsy's original body, but when she found out how long the cloning process was going to take, she said to clone Kitty instead. She felt that by the time the clone was done, her personality and Kwannon's would've merged and be indistinguishable from each other by then."

"Why would they have merged?" Gambit asked, frowning.

Kurt shrugged. "You'd have to ask Betsy. I don't really understand how that part of it works. Anyway, I'll go and let you eat before your dinner gets cold."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The following morning, Rogue and Gambit headed to the dining hall for breakfast. Olivier went with them, of course, along with his high chair and baby bag. Rogue remembered the way there easily, which she found a little disconcerting.

"I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd never believe this place was demolished by Sentinels," she said to Gambit as they walked together.

Gambit chuckled. "Everything's just as you remember it, hein?"

"Pretty much."

They arrived at the dining hall and Jubilee noticed them almost immediately.

"Hey, over here," she said, waving them over.

Rogue threw Gambit a grin, and then they headed over to the table. Neighbouring chairs were moved aside by willing hands so that Gambit could put the high chair down.

"Hey, good morning," Jubilee said. "How are you guys?"

"Good," Rogue said as she sat Olivier down in his chair. "You know, I was going to ask if you recreated the entire mansion down to the last detail, but I see the furniture in here is different."

Jubilee laughed. "Yeah, we did the kitchen up too."

"Nice."

"And it now has a fridge with a lock for Logan to keep his beer."

"A lock?" Gambit repeated. "Hmm..."

"Don't even think about it, bub," Logan said, pointing at Gambit with his toast.

"Too late, already thinking about it," Gambit replied, grinning back at him. "But I don't steal from clients, at least, not until after the deal is done."

Logan grunted as if to inform Gambit that he didn't believe a word of it. Gambit then noticed the buffet and touched Rogue's shoulder.

"Want me to get you yours?" he asked her.

"Please," Rogue replied while fishing Olivier's breakfast, utensils, and bibs out of the bag.

"So how old is he now?" asked Jubilee, leaning partly over the table to look at him better.

"Ten months," Rogue said.

Gambit soon returned with their breakfast, and more of the school's residents began to appear. Tabitha laughed as soon as she sat down with her food.

"What are you wearing a bib for?" she asked Rogue, seemingly oblivious to the big mess Olivier was making of breakfast. "You look silly."

Rogue gave Tabitha a dark look, then pulled out Mystique's psyche and shapeshifted into an exact copy of Tabitha.

"Do I still look silly now?" Rogue asked with Tabitha's voice.

"Whoa cool," said Jubilee while Tabitha stammered in embarrassment.

"Noooo," Bobby said, joining them at the table in his damaged ice form. "There's two of them."

Rogue snorted and shifted back before Olivier could get upset about his mama disappearing. "Sporting a new look, Bobby?"

"Yeah, I'm going for that grungy, ripped jeans kind of look," Bobby replied, and since he didn't feel like talking about it right now, changed the subject: "How was your honeymoon?"

"It was good," Rogue replied whilst managing feeding herself and Olivier at the same time. "We went to wine country."

"We even got out of the hotel room long enough to go on a wine tour," Gambit added wickedly.

"Well, that was too much information," said Bobby.

"Oh please," Jubilee said scornfully. "You only say that because you weren't exposed to the great Condom Box Scavenger Hunt."

Gambit burst out laughing.

"What's this?" Tabitha asked.

"When Pete and I stayed at their place for the wedding," Jubilee said, "we found out that they kept a box of condoms in every single freaking room in the house."

"Not every room," Gambit said, grinning. "Just most of them."

"The first box we found was in the billiards room," said Piotr. "They kept it with the balls."

Bobby snickered.

"And yet," Storm said with her brand of slyness from the other end of the table, "I don't imagine they did you much good, since you ended up having a shotgun wedding."

"Well, hey, those things are only 97% effective, right?" Bobby said with a smirk. "So if you have sex a hundred times, you still risk getting pregnant three times..."

"True that," said Jubilee. "Which leads me to ask: Is Olivier going to be a big brother any time soon?"

"Nope," Rogue said, and before she could add some snarky remark, she spotted the next two people to join them at the table. She dropped her spoon in shock. "Jean? Scott?"

"Madelyne," the red-haired woman said tersely. "My name is Madelyne."

"Hi Rogue," Scott said, sitting down at the table. "Long time, no see."

"Long time, no see?" Rogue repeated as Gambit rescued the spoon and took over feeding Olivier. "You're dead! You're supposed to be dead! What the hell?"

"Lady Deathstrike attacked the Professor and I when we went to visit Magneto in prison," Scott said in the voice of someone who's not in the mood to repeat himself. "We got captured, and then we were attacked on the way to wherever it was that Stryker wanted to take us by the Marauders. Sinister replaced me with a clone and then kept me prisoner for a couple of years. By the time I escaped, everyone thought myself, Jean, and the Professor were long dead. I figured that if there was ever a chance to start over this was it. Besides, Sinister probably would have figured I'd return to the X-men."

Scott took a breath and then barrelled on before any questions could be asked: "So I went back to my family in Alaska. I met Madelyne. We got married, and I thought that Sinister wasn't able to find me but..."

"The toddler," Rogue said, her eyes wide. "He's your son."

"His name is Nate," Scott said stiffly, and then nodded towards Olivier. "And who's this?"

"Olivier," Rogue replied, and gestured to Gambit. "And this is my husband, Remy."

"Storm seems to think very highly of you," Scott said to Gambit. "She insisted we needed your skills to rescue Nate, but she wasn't very clear on what it is you actually do."

Gambit glanced at Storm, who just gave a little shrug, then sneaked in a mouthful of food into Olivier's mouth while he was occupied attempting to pick up some more of his breakfast out of his bowl with his fingers.

"I'm a thief," he said. "I'm probably the best thief in the whole country, and you're very lucky to get me 'cause I'm supposed to be retired."

Logan snorted contemptuously.

"A thief?" Scott exploded, whirling on Rogue. "You married a thief?"

Rogue's eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry? Are you criticising _my_ husband? The one who's going to save _your_ son? The child you have with your dead girlfriend's doppelganger?"

"Hey!" Madelyne objected. She really, really hated being compared to Jean all the time.

"Yeah, well," Bobby spoke up before Scott could say anything. "My dad could beat your dad in a fight."

The comment was so absurd that the table broke out in nervous giggles.

"You're retired now?" Storm asked Gambit.

Gambit hesitated, not wanting to say too much in front of people who had no business knowing Guild business, but at the same time wanting to fill Storm in.

"It would be better to say that mon père has retired," Gambit said at last.

Storm raised her eyebrows. "I thought Henri..."

"Goes to the better thief, not the eldest," Gambit replied with a half shrug.

"I'd forgotten that," Storm said, regarding Gambit thoughtfully. "So are congratulations in order?"

Gambit blanched. "I hate retirement."

Storm chuckled.

* * *

><p>When everyone was ready after breakfast, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Logan, Scott, and Madelyne met in Storm's office for the briefing. Olivier blatantly refused to be parted from his parents and joined them as well. Rogue sat with Olivier on the floor to keep a better eye on him while he played with his stack of plastic rings.<p>

To begin with, they told Gambit and Rogue about their two attempts at breaking into Sinister's base. The first time Logan, Storm, Scott, Psylocke, Bobby, Piotr, and Paige had brazen their way in and were defeated by four of the eight Marauders; Sabretooth, Riptide, Vertigo, and Scalphunter.

"What do you mean, Bobby's stuck in iceform?" Rogue asked.

"Because he's missing a few vital organs these days," Logan replied, looking at Rogue as if wondering if motherhood had addled her brains or something.

"Well, yeah, if he's always walking around in that dishevelled thing he calls an iceform I saw this morning," Rogue said contemptuously. "Why doesn't he...ooooh."

"Why doesn't he what?" Storm asked.

"Never mind, this was what? Two, three months ago? I'm guessing if he knew, he would have done it long before now. I'll talk to him after," Rogue said, took in the confounded looks on everyone's faces and grinned. "I'm not going to discuss this behind his back. Now pray, continue. What else to we need to know about your invasion?"

The invasion barely got past the front door, and it had been all they could do to rescue Psylocke's fallen body before they escaped. The second team, consisting of Kurt and Kitty, went barely a day later. Sinister was moving house when Kitty and Kurt arrived, and they didn't even see any Marauders until they were leaving.

"So, the only one there was Psylocke in this new body?" Gambit queried. "Pretty convenient."

"She was depowered somehow and strapped to a table," Storm said. "We figured Sinister was probably in the middle of some experiment when they decided to move."

"Yet Nate and everyone else was moved; all the other prisoners and experiments, even all the occupied cloning chambers were moved before Psylocke was," Gambit said. "That doesn't strike anyone else as being even a little bit suspicious?"

"Perhaps he needed to get things set up in the new place before they moved her," Madelyne suggested.

"You can always meet with Betsy, Kitty, and Kurt later for more details," Storm said.

Gambit nodded, and the briefing continued. Finally, they got to what they'd found on the hard drive full of data that Kitty had managed to collect from Sinister's base before her accident. They shared the location of the new base, and Logan went over what he had learned from his discreet scouting mission.

"On the surface, it's just a factory," Logan said, drawing their attention to some photographs he put in Storm's desk. "But the Marauders scents are all over it. They're all over the town too; particularly in the bar."

"Is your scent now all over the bar?" asked Gambit, briefly glancing at Logan out of the corner of his eye while he continued to look down at the photos.

"Didn't go in there," Logan said. "I smelt them at the door."

"Fine then; is your scent now all over the town?" Gambit asked again.

Logan shrugged. "Been a few weeks, probably washed away by now."

Gambit grunted.

"Well, Sabretooth has a nose, and he'll know my scent," Gambit said. "Makes things trickier, since we want to be as discreet as possible. Still, Sabretooth won't realise I'm working for the X-men so..."

Storm snapped her fingers. "That's something you should know, Rogue; Sabretooth's had a haircut since you last saw him. It's now short and black, instead of long and blond."

Rogue sat up straight, absently accepting the plastic ring Olivier gave her.

"Hang on a second," she said, holding up her free hand. "I need to check something in Mystique's memories..."

Everyone looked at each other and then at Rogue. Rogue pulled out Mystique's mind and everyone watched as her expression changed from one emotion to another in rapid succession; contemplation, grossed out, wickedly delighted, a face no one was willing to actually describe but it came with a rather suggestive moan and the pushing out of her chest (Gambit was not amused). Finally, Rogue blew her hair out of her face and set Mystique's psyche aside.

"There's two Sabretooths," Rogue announced as Olivier scooted over to Gambit with a plastic ring in his hand. "I remembered when I... oh, has Kurt told you guys we're related?"

"You're related?" Scott asked.

"He told me," Storm said, watching Olivier hand another plastic ring to Rogue.

"Mystique's my adopted mother and Kurt's biological mother," Rogue said with a nod as she accepted the ring. "When I found out, the next time I absorbed Mystique I went looking for further detail on why she abandoned him, and I also went looking for any other siblings. We have one; his name is Graydon Creed, and he was born human. His father is Sabretooth."

Scott gave a low whistle. Logan snorted. Olivier took one of the plastic rings back from Rogue.

"Anyway, Mystique met the short, black-haired Sabretooth; the original one, Victor Creed," Rogue said. "Now, the same time Mystique told him about Graydon—and Graydon would have been early teens at this point—Victor was working for Sinister. Sinister was creating a clone of him, which Victor was not happy about. He let the clone out early. They thought it would destroy it, but the clone was far enough along that he was functional, if defective. The blond hair being one of the defects. Mystique, umm, stole him for use by the Brotherhood."

"Well, that's quite a story," Storm said.

"And it explains a couple of things," Logan said, thinking about to his first encounter with Victor, when he attacked him apparently as a 'birthday present'. "But not everything."

Rogue shrugged. "Unless Victor met me through Mystique in those early days, he won't know my scent. And I can't confirm that either way, since I don't know what the timeline is like between myself and Graydon, although I certainly don't remember meeting him—either him. I'm inclined to think Victor never met me though; Mystique and Victor don't exactly strike me as the relationship type."

"Alright then, I guess you're doing the leg work for this job," Gambit said, giving Rogue a nod. "We're going to have to hack into any security cameras in the area, and set up our own for any blinds spots."

"Why?" Scott asked.

"Because we need to get some idea of movements in and out of the base," Gambit said. "If we can keep an eye on the places they frequent outside of the base, that'll be good too. This way we can figure out the best time to get in; when it's least populated. Don't get your hopes up, mon ami, this is not going to be a fast job."

"My son is in there—"

"I realise that—"

"I thought you were the 'best' thief—"

"I am," Gambit replied coolly. "And a very important part of being even a halfway decent thief is this thing called 'patience'. I get that you want your son back. I get that he's been in there far too long already, but I'm not going to do a rush job. I'm going to do a _good_ job."

* * *

><p>After the meeting was over, Rogue looked for and found Bobby in the computer room. He, along with many other members of the school's population, was playing World of Warcraft. As Rogue wandered around to watch him, she noted that he was using very different equipment than normal, likely to prevent his iceform from freezing up the circuitry or something. She watched as his avatar, a female draenei shaman mined some mithril.<p>

"Having fun?" she asked.

Bobby looked up and behind. "Oh hey Rogue. Just trying to level up my professions."

"Dare I ask why you're playing a girl?" Rogue said slyly.

"Because I'm the one who has to look at her all the time, and I want to look at something aesthetically pleasing," Bobby replied seriously.

"Very well then," Rogue said. "So, umm, if this isn't a bad moment, can I talk to you for a minute? About your powers. Umm, and it's probably better in private."

Bobby shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Just gimme a second to hearth and log off."

"It takes longer than a second to use the hearthstone."

"Details."

Bobby logged off, then followed Rogue outside. He had to admit, he was rather curious about this. The most Rogue spoke to him since the Sentinel thing was just World of Warcraft stuff. When Rogue was satisfied that no one was listening in, she spoke.

"I'm told you believe you're stuck in iceform," she said.

Bobby shrugged. "If I change back to human now, I'll probably die instantly. Come on Rogue, you can see all the chunks missing from my body. I'm probably lucky I'm still alive now."

He looked down at the ground, really not wanting to dwell on being some kind of ice zombie.

"You're right," Rogue said. "If you change back now, you probably would. I guess you'd better fill up the missing holes then."

Bobby lifted his head and glared at her. "This isn't funny."

"Do I look like I'm laughing?" Rogue demanded.

Bobby's only response was to glare at her. Rogue sighed irritably.

"You honestly have no idea, do you?" she said. "Allow me to demonstrate."

Rogue pulled out Bobby's psyche and took on his iceform, and the real Bobby stared. Then Rogue pulled out Piotr's psyche and turned her left arm into steel. She held out her icey right arm, and before Bobby could verbalise his objection, Rogue smashed her left arm down on her right, shattering it to pieces. Bobby promptly freaked out. Rogue ignored him. She released Piotr's psyche, and then reached out with Bobby's powers to grab hold of the fallen pieces of her am. Bobby gaped as Rogue absorbed these pieces, every last drop, into her body and her arm reformed. When Rogue finally released Bobby's psyche and became human again, there wasn't a scratch on her.

"How?" Bobby asked, amazed.

Rogue smiled faintly. "I just showed you how."

"Rogue, the pieces of me I lost, I lost them at Sinister's base," Bobby said plaintively. "They've probably long melted away by now."

"So use something else," Rogue said. "There's plenty of water in the air, for one thing."

"Is that possible?" Bobby asked. "And how'd you... pull yourself together like that anyway?"

"They're your powers," Rogue replied. "You tell me."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Armed with nothing but her imprinted powers and a phone, Rogue headed to the vicinity of Sinister's new base in Connecticut. Her mission was to plant the surveillance cameras that Gambit had acquired. They organised to do this at night; between Mystique's shapeshifting, Kitty's phasing, Gambit's ability to see in the dark, and Logan's enhanced senses, Rogue felt she would have very little problem planting the cameras without being noticed by people or other cameras. Except, of course, by Victor, should he notice her scent.

While she was there, she also took in the lay of the land, and got a general idea of the places that the Marauders liked to go during what she supposed were their 'off hours'. She was only able to account for a few of the Marauders, but it was better than nothing.

Using Mystique's powers, Rogue took on a different, random appearance, and investigated the bar that Logan had mentioned some of the Marauders frequented. She made herself as discreet as possible and found a quiet corner to sit and observe.

One of the Marauders was already in there. Since Victor was the only one of the Marauders she was capable of putting a name and face to, she wasn't sure which one this was, although she would later identify him as Scalphunter. Of the others, she knew their powers and a vague description of their appearance. Rogue was sure she'd be able to pick Blockbuster, who was apparently the biggest of the group. She was also certain she could identify the women; Vertigo had green hair, while Lady Mastermind apparently had a fondness for black leather and showing off as much of her upper body as she could without revealing a nipple.

The name and description for Lady Mastermind reminded Rogue of the Brotherhood's Mastermind; only Mastermind had black hair, and Lady Mastermind had blonde. Remembering what she had previously explained about Victor and his clone, Rogue wondered if the same might apply to the two Mastermind women. Either way, Rogue had no interest whatsoever in crossing Lady Mastermind's path; she was a telepath, and as such had the ability to find her out.

Rogue's musings were broken when Victor walked in. She watched him discreetly out of the corner of her eye as he walked over to the other side of the bar to Scalphunter and ordered a drink. Neither Marauder acknowledged the other's existence.

Sometime later, Rogue stood to leave. The night was young, and she needed to go install some more security cameras. In any case, Victor and Scalphunter weren't exactly doing anything interesting, just usual bar stuff and ignoring each other's presence. As Rogue departed, a third Marauder entered; a short, weedy guy, Rogue would later find out was Scrambler. She and Scrambler didn't more than glance at each other, and barely that as they passed each other.

* * *

><p>"How long is this going to take?" Scott asked, watching as Gambit set up his surveillance room while Olivier happily played in his playpen.<p>

"As long as it takes," Gambit replied tersely as he tried to concentrate on setting up the camera and monitor settings on the computer.

"It's been almost a week!"

To his further fury, Gambit ignored him. Scott grabbed Gambit shoulder and turned him on his swivel chair, forcing Gambit to look at him.

"Would you be taking this long if it was your son?" Scott demanded.

"Oui," Gambit replied so quickly and so forcefully that Scott was taken aback. Gambit took advantage of Scott's surprise to turn back to the computer.

"I told you, mon ami," Gambit said firmly, "I'm going to do a good job, not a rush job. Casing a place takes time. Believe me, I'm going to be looking out for the best opportunity I can get to break in there in the shortest amount of time. The idea is to succeed on the first try, and need I point out that your first two failed?"

Scott spluttered indignantly.

"I don't tell you how to do your job, so don't go telling me how to do mine," Gambit went on blithely. "If you—"

"If you can call 'stealing' a job!" Scott exploded.

"Hey, if you want me to leave, just say so," Gambit said. "I'm sure you can get Nate back on your own. You've done a bang up job so far."

"N-no, it's okay," Scott said hurriedly. "Umm... I think I hear Maddy calling. Uhh... you keep at it."

Gambit snorted as Scott made a hurried departure. Just when he was thinking he finally had some peace and quiet, his phone rang.

"Gambit," he said, answering it.

"Bonjour your royal highness," Emil said and Gambit stifled a groan. "No, in all seriousness Remy, I have a problem. A very serious problem."

"I'm listening," Gambit said dryly.

"Alissa has started looking at boys."

Gambit paused. He was pretty sure that Alissa was one of Emil's four daughters, and two of them were teenagers. Surely Emil would have already dealt with this?

"Which one's Alissa?" Gambit asked uncertainly. "The... third one?"

"Nope, she's the eldest," Emil replied. "Sixteen. Going to be doing her Mastery this year."

"Okay so what's this 'started' business then?" Gambit asked. "I assumed she would have started looking at boys at least three years ago."

"Oh, she did. It's an ongoing problem."

"Emil..."

"I'm just not sure what I should do about it," Emil went on cheerfully. "I thought about locking her up in a tower or something until she's thirty, but she'd probably just break out."

"Probably. Look, Emil, I'm kind of busy at the moment..."

"But...but you're the Patriarch!" Emil said dramatically. "Do you mean to tell me that you don't have time for me? Your Guild-son?"

Gambit was silent for a moment, and then asked: "Did Henri put you up to this?"

"Maybe. What do you think about chastity belts?"

"I'm pretty sure those things are a health hazard. Besides, she'd probably just pick the lock," Gambit said, inwardly trying to figure out how to get away from this ridiculous conversation.

"Hmm, good point," Emil said. "So, what do you suggest I do, oh wise, fathery-type person?"

"I don't know, Emil, I don't exactly have any daughters," Gambit replied in exasperation.

"You're such a liar. You have a lot of Guild-daughters."

Gambit stifled a groan.

"And I think you've slept with some of them," Emil went on thoughtfully. "There's a word for that: Guild-incest."

"That's two words."

"Nu-uh, it has a hyphen."

"Oookay," Gambit said, and then figuring that he was not going to get off the phone until after he'd given Emil some advice, continued with: "Alright, here's what you do. Tell Alissa that she may date or otherwise screw around with anyone she wants on one condition: She has to steal—steal, not ask for—a trophy of some kind from each sexual encounter. And it has to be something personal to the guy she did the deed with."

"Umm, well, farbeit for me to disparage your wisdom Guild-father," Emil said. "But why?"

"Well, for one thing, you'll know how many guys she's sleeping with, if any."

"True, but not quite the kind of advice I was looking for."

"You could always tell her if she has sex before marriage, you'll contract the Assassins Guild to take out her lover," Gambit suggested mischievously.

"Would she believe it, though?"

"She will after you kill the first one."

Emil laughed heartily.

"I already pity your future daughter," Emil said. "Assuming you have one."

"Nah, Rogue and I will be applying the fear test," Gambit said. "She can only sleep with guys who can stand up to Rogue and I when we attempt to scare them off. And you know we'll scare them off. Actually, it's not so much a fear test as a strength of character test."

Emil laughed some more.

'How about the talking-out-of-your-ass test?" he asked.

"Oh I passed that one years ago. You're actually talking to my ass right now."

"Well, that gives a new meaning to the phrase 'brain fart'."

"And now, my Guild-son," Gambit said in a pompous tone, determined to end the conversation, "if that is all, Guild-papa has to go back to work now."

Emil snickered.

"Yeah, okay, Remy," he said. "Talk to you later."

"See ya."

Gambit hung up his phone with some relief and set it aside. He then stared at the screen, trying to remember what it was exactly that he was doing before Emil called. Just as Gambit remembered, Olivier started wailing behind him. Gambit stifled a sigh and turned his attention to his flesh-and-blood son with resignation. He'd finish this eventually.

* * *

><p>"Hank! I did it!"<p>

Hank lifted his head just in time to see Bobby running towards him on two completely human legs with a big, happy grin on his face.

"So I see," Hank replied in amazement. "How...?"

"Rogue showed me," Bobby said excitedly as he closed the distance. "She showed me I could pull myself together and I could absorb any water into myself. I was able to fill up the gaps! I have lungs now, Hank! And a liver! And two knees! And all the other body parts I need."

"I'm very happy for you," Hank said, looking over his young friend. "And most relieved too."

"So am I, Hank, so am I. I thought I was going to be stuck in iceform for the rest of my life," Bobby replied, and it was only then that he noticed that Hank was all dressed up. "Going out somewhere tonight?"

"Ahh, yea," Hank replied. "I have a date with Cecelia."

"Woohoo," Bobby said, giving Hank a nudge with his elbow. "You sly dog... Beast... Have a good night. Where are you going?"

"The opera."

"You know Hank, if anyone else had told me that, I'd be wishing them my condolences," Bobby said mischievously. "Have a good time."

"I will. And congratulations again. We shall have to celebrate properly later."

"Thanks. I'll bring the twinkies."

* * *

><p>Rogue's trip took about ten days to finish, and when she returned she was suitably impressed and awed by the surveillance room that used to be an unused classroom. There were computers, monitors, chairs and tables everywhere, and everything was baby-proofed. Space had been set aside for Olivier's playpen, and everything had been deliberately positioned so that said playpen remained in line-of-sight no matter which computer was being worked at.<p>

All but two of the monitors depicted one of the cameras that Rogue had set up on her trip. It would be impossible to watch all the footage in real time, of course; instead the footage was recorded so that Gambit and Rogue could watch it later and fast forward through all the "boring bits" where there was no movement occurring.

Although Scott and Madelyne were both still quite anxious for the rescue of their son, Scott stopped nagging Gambit after he saw the finished surveillance room. He was forced to concede that Gambit knew exactly what he was doing and would be nothing short of thorough.

As soon as Rogue got home, a whole, human Bobby tackled her with a huge bear hug. Rogue found she had mixed feelings about the matter. She was happy that Bobby had figured out how to restore himself while she was away, but a part of her did wonder why she had bothered to help he who stabbed her in the back. Sure, she had told him at one point that she no longer bore him any ill will, but she hadn't exactly anticipated ever actually helping him either.

"Thankyou-thankyou-thankyou-thankyou!" Bobby had exclaimed.

"Umm," Rogue said, and patted his back awkwardly. "You're welcome?"

"I thought I was going to be stuck as an ice block forever," Bobby declared dramatically. "I had no idea I could absorb water into myself. How did you know?"

Rogue shrugged as she wriggled out of Bobby's grip. "I just knew, I guess. I have a lot of powers in my collection. It gives me a unique perspective."

Once Rogue had managed to disentangle herself from the discomfort of Bobby's gratitude, she located Gambit and Olivier in the new surveillance room. There, she had attempted to both congratulate Gambit on his progress and make up for her lost week and a half of personal time with her family at the same time.

"Okay," Gambit said when they came back to the unfortunate reality of having to get back to work, and he pointed to a pinboard. "These are the photos of the Marauders. I pulled them from the footage I've seen so far. They're not great shots, but they're sufficient for what we need. I had Scott identify them. We're only missing Lady Mastermind and Riptide."

Rogue nodded, now able to match names with faces and scents.

Gambit then showed her where all the video footage was being saved and what as, and they got to work. Of course, Olivier interrupted them when he woke from his nap, and eventually they had to do basic living activities such as eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, and finally sleeping.

* * *

><p>The following day, Rogue finally worked up the nerve to go visit Kitty. She had spoken to her only once, when she and Gambit asked Kitty, Psylocke, and Kurt about their ill-fated trip to Sinister's base. They had yet to speak personally, and feeling a little anxious about talking to someone she wasn't exactly friends with anymore and dying, Rogue took Olivier with her.<p>

Kitty was a little fuzzy to look at, blurred as if slightly out of focus. When she saw Rogue and Olivier enter, she waved. The movement was a little sluggish and a blurry trail followed it. Rogue waved back with a few spare fingers while carrying Olivier on her hip.

"Hi," Rogue said as she approached, and glanced around the private room in the med lab. "Psylocke's not here?"

Kitty shook her head.

"Ahh well," Rogue said. "This is Olivier. I believe he was down for a nap the last time we, umm, spoke."

Kitty nodded.

"Oli," Rogue went on, shifting around so that Olivier's head was facing Kitty. "This is your Auntie Kitty."

Kitty smiled broadly. Auntie Kitty! That was the last thing Kitty expected Rogue to introduce her as, and the gesture made her feel ridiculously happy. She waved at Olivier.

"Buh," Olivier said.

Olivier's most distinctive characteristic was his red and black eyes which he had clearly inherited from his father. He also had fine, short hair, which was brown except for one spot about the width of her pinkie just above the middle of his forehead. Kitty gestured curiously to Olivier, then touched the same spot on her head. Rogue looked momentarily puzzled by the gesture, so Kitty pointed to Olivier again, and this time touched a lock of her hair in the same position. Rogue grinned.

"Yeah, he's got some white hair there," Rogue said. "Don't ask me why; my white streak shouldn't be hereditary."

Kitty grinned and gave her two thumbs up. Rogue chuckled lightly. Rogue took a step closer to the containment chamber.

"I'm so sorry, sugah," she said. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

Kitty pointed to her eye and then her temple. Rogue knew she meant "I know."

Kitty then pointed to Rogue, then to herself, and Rogue smiled as Kitty mimed a fist fight. Then Kitty waved her hand from side to side, palm facing Rogue. She pointed at Rogue again, then herself, and clasped her hands.

Rogue nodded, having some idea of what Kitty was trying to say; she didn't want them to be fighting, or to let their past grievance to continue to stay between them, she wanted them to be friends again. As badly as part of her wanted to continue holding a grudge, Rogue couldn't bring herself to deny Kitty this, not when she was dying, even if there was hope she might yet survive.

Kitty gave Rogue two thumbs up.

"Buh," Olivier said solemnly, and put his hand on the clear wall of the containment chamber.

"Oh hey," and Rogue turned her head to see Psylocke sauntering into the medlab. "I didn't realise Kitty had visitors. Sorry."

"It's okay," Rogue said. "We've been communicating just fine."

Kitty grinned and gave Psylocke a thumbs up.

"Good to know," Psylocke said, joining them in their little cluster.

"Well," Rogue said after a moment of feeling a little awkward. "I should—"

_"Have you played Cataclysm yet?" _Rogue heard Kitty's voice say inside her head.

Rogue glanced at Psylocke, then at Kitty who was smiling at her hopefully.

"A little," Rogue said. "I created a goblin rogue. The goblin starting zone is pretty fun, actually."

_"Yeah, that's what Tabitha said,"_ Kitty said. _"She said that the goblin starting zone is more fun, and the worgan starting zone has good story."_

"I haven't made a worgan," Rogue said. "I may have to check it out."

_"We'll win you over to the Alliance yet," _Kitty said, grinning wickedly at her.

"Not likely. I'm far too busy being a mother and a wife and a...rogue," and Rogue heard Kitty laugh in her mind, "to even consider shifting factions. Oh, Remy tried out the goblins too. He's happy because there's this one quest where you get to scale a building. He says there should be more building scaling."

They chatted a little longer, and then Olivier started fussing, so he and Rogue left. Kitty watched them leave feeling both happier and sadder at the same time. She was glad she got to spend some time with Rogue as friends again.

Kitty glanced over at the cloning chamber with her new body still forming. Kitty hadn't wanted everyone to know yet, but the clone was forming too slowly, and she was disintegrating too quickly. Forge was doing what he could, but as he told them to start with, his powers of invention had limitations just like every other mutant ability.

She only had two weeks left.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Gambit and Rogue got very little interference with their operation while they were working, although they did get asked outside of the surveillance room how things were going. The answer was always the same "as well as can be expected" and the only hiccup they had was when a civilian found one of their cameras and reported it; one of the many reasons why Gambit preferred hacking into pre-existing cameras. Rogue had to make a quick trip back to organise another camera to cover that spot and steal the first camera back while Gambit took steps to ensure it couldn't be traced back to them—or at all.

"Okay guys," Bobby said to them over breakfast one morning, "you've been spending a lot of time cooped up in that surveillance room. Why don't you guys take a break and play WoW with us for awhile?"

"Because we don't associate with Alliance scum," Gambit said with a wink as he fed Olivier his breakfast.

Tabitha made a rude noise.

"You guys need to stop being so factiony. Both Horde and Alliance have stuff to offer," Tabitha said with authority. "Plus it's even cooler now that they've revamped all the zones; have you guys been to Stonetalon Mountains lately? If you're Horde you get to be part of the whole bombing the druid's grove, and if you're Alliance you get to be part of the rescue. It's awesome. There's stuff like that all over the place."

"Yeah, that's right," said Jubilee. "You Horde scum bombed an innocent druid grove. For shame!"

"Actually the guy who had dropped the bomb was acting under his own violation and not under Garrosh's instructions," Tabitha said smugly. "And you would have been in on the scene where Garrosh kills him if you ever bothered to play Horde. So ha!"

"I can see why you and Gris Gris get along," Rogue said. "And to answer the original question, I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass. I know what WoW's like. We'll say we'll only play for an hour, and the next thing we know, half the day is gone."

Bobby chuckled knowingly.

"What about the Danger Room?" asked Jubilee.

"Actually that might be fun," Rogue said thoughtfully. "Wow, I haven't been in that thing in years."

"I haven't been in it at all," Gambit said.

Rogue grinned and stood.

"And I can always bring WoW in there with us," she said, and pulled out Mystique's psyche. "Watch this."

Using Mystique's shapeshifting abilities Rogue transformed herself into her main WoW character, a tauren druid. Storm and Paige wondered what exactly was the significance of turning herself into a female minotaur was, Logan growled, remembering another occasion where Rogue had taken the liberty of shapeshifting into characters from 'that game'. Psylocke stared at Rogue, not because of the shapeshifting, but because of what she could hear going on in Rogue's head.

"Boo Horde," said Bobby.

"Although," and then Rogue transformed again, going from a tauren to a blue-skinned troll, "I think de trolls are a bit more feminine, mon."

Gambit waggled his eyebrows at her. "I'll agree with that."

"Boo Horde," Bobby felt the need to repeat.

Rogue smirked at him, and then transformed into a night elf, complete with purple skin and long ears. "Better?"

"Much."

"Oooh, ooh do worgan next!" Tabitha said excitedly. "I love the worgan! And they have top hats. Top hats!"

"I'm not sure if I can," Rogue said thoughtfully, "I haven't really seen very many in game just yet... But then how hard can a wolfman be?"

She considered for a moment, then shapeshifted once more into her approximation of a worgan with a top hat just for Tabitha's benefit. Still, not entirely happy with the result, Rogue shapeshifted again almost immediately into a blood elf mage

"See?" Jubilee said pointing. "Totally anorexic."

Rogue flipped her red hair. "You mean I'm stuck with this hair colour?"

Tabitha burst out laughing, recognising one of the blood elf female joke emotes.

"Ugh I hate Thunder Bluff! You can't find a good burger anywhere," Rogue said.

Paige looked at all the players who cracked up at another of the blood elf female jokes. "I don't get it."

"Okay, the first person that Rogue transformed into? The tauren? They're cows, right?" Jubilee explained. "And their capital city is Thunder Bluff. So of course you can't find burgers at Thunger Bluff; that would be like, cannibalism or something."

Rogue took this as her cue to transform into a female troll again. "If cannibalism be wrong, I don't want to be right."

"Non," said Gambit. "The Darkspear trolls gave up cannibalism, remember?"

"Officially anyway," Rogue said slyly.

"Ooh do draenei next," Bobby said eagerly. "They have the hottest women in the game."

Rogue raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Bobby seriously went on a mission to determine which race has the sexiest woman," Tabitha said cynically.

"Orcs," said Gambit. "They definitely have the sexiest women."

Rogue shapeshifted into an orc then and grinned at Gambit, trying to remember some of the female orc jokes.

"I feel very _feminine_," she said, "and I'll beat the crap out of _anyone_ who disagrees!"

"Really?" Bobby asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're attracted to orc women?"

"I never said I was attracted to them, I said they were the sexiest," Gambit replied with a smirk. "And they have the best pick up lines."

"This is true," Rogue said. "I like: 'You'll do. Let's go.'"

"Ooh ooh ooh!" Tabitha said eagerly, waving her arms. "You know how the draenei are jewelcrafters? Okay the males have a joke that goes like this: 'When we arrived here I lost many jewels that had been in my family for generations. If you could get your hands on my family jewels I would be deeply appreciative.'"

Much giggling followed, including from Paige.

"What exactly are all these?" Paige asked. "I mean I get that they're WoW things but..."

"Oh well, in the game, you have these emotes, like you can make 'em bow, or cower—" Tabitha started to say.

"Or cluck like a chicken, or chug like a train," said Bobby.

"Or whatever, and each race and sex has their own set of jokes and flirts," Tabitha went on. "They're pretty funny. Heh, the goblin girls even have one about going up on someone..."

Bobby cracked up.

"Yeah, I heard that one," Rogue said. "Sadly, goblins are too short, and I can't shapeshift into one effectively; not enough mass, and Mystique's powers are mass-limited."

"Pity," Tabitha said.

"They have their own dances too," said Jubilee. "The human females do the Macarena."

"Yeah, I hate that song," said Rogue. "Also, totally vindicated I don't play Alliance now. Let's see, night and blood elves, tauren, orc, troll, worgan sorta, I can do human any time, can't really do goblins or gnomes, not that I would ever even consider lowering myself to shapeshift into a gnome—"

"Hey!" Jubilee objected. "I like gnomies. They're cute and adorable."

"And good for punting," Gambit said with a smirk.

"Probably shouldn't do a Forsaken right now; it's breakfast and no one wants to see the living dead while they're eating," Rogue said musingly, "so that leaves dwarves and—"

"And draenei!" Bobby said, grinning at Rogue excitedly.

"Aren't dwarves too short too?" Jubilee asked.

"Nope, they're taller and stocker, so they have more bulk than gnomes and goblins," Rogue said as she started to shapeshift.

"And they have big, bouncing gazungas," Bobby said, nodding eagerly.

Gambit finally turned his head to eye Bobby suspiciously. "You already had your chance with Rogue and you blew it. If I catch you ogling my wife because she can shapeshift into your fantasy woman I will kick your ass."

Bobby saluted. "Duly noted."

"It had better be."

"Aye laddy," Rogue said in her dwarf appearance. "And I have no idea what kind of things the dwarven women say so you're just going to have to make do with my take on their accent."

"Oooh," said Tabitha, "say, umm, say 'I'd like to see you in a kilt.'"

Rogue laughed and then said "I'd like to see you in a kilt," while looking at Gambit and waggling her eyebrows.

"Not looking like that you won't," Gambit replied tolerantly.

Rogue chuckled and finally—to Bobby's delight, although he made sure not to show it—shapeshifted into a draenei woman, complete with blue skin, hooves, tail, and horns.

"That so cool," said Tabitha. "I can't think of anything they say though."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?... Good. Bring ample supply of butter and Goblin Jumper Cables," said Bobby. "It's one of their flirts. Go on, say it, say it."

Gambit looked at him. Bobby backed into his chair.

"I'm not ogling, I'm just, umm, helping Rogue," he said.

Rogue snorted, but she put on the draenei accent as best she could and said suggestively: "Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Good. Bring ample supply of butter and Goblin Jumper Cables."

"Okay, that's not quite how she says it but—" Bobby began, but was interrupted by Olivier crying. Rogue reverted back to normal as Gambit attempted to soothe his distraught son.

"Well that was fun," Rogue said as she put Mystique's psyche away. "I'm telling you, absorbing Mystique was the best decision I ever made."

"How did you do that?" Psylocke asked urgently, half standing in her seat.

Everyone looked at her.

"What? The shapeshifting?" Rogue asked. "I absorbed Mystique, twice actually. Now I can use her powers whenever I want."

"Yes, I mean, no..." Psylocke closed her eyes and took a moment to gather her thoughts. "When you were shapeshifting there was a second set of thought patterns in your head. Then, when you stopped, the second set of thought patterns disappeared."

Rogue shrugged and picked up her fork to get back to her breakfast of pancakes. "Nature of my powers, sugah. When I absorb someone I get this neat package that contains their personality, a selection of memories and skills, and their mutation if they have one. Since getting my powers under control I can tuck all these psyches into little boxes and set them aside until I want to use them."

"And you let them out of the box?" Psylocke asked. "But they can't merge with your personality, or with the other personalities, right? You can keep each personality separate?"

"Yep," Rogue said, and ate some of her pancake.

"Then you can save Kitty!" Psylocke said excitedly. "She only has a week left—"

"What?"

"A week left?"

"Since when?"

"What are you talking about?"

Psylocke winced at the explosion of questions and demands. "Kitty didn't want me, or Hank, or Forge to tell anyone. The containment chamber can't keep her together much longer. The only way to save her is to transfer her mind to another body, but the clone won't be done for another two months, and if I transfer her to anyone else's body, the two personalities will merge, or her psyche will be rejected by the already-occupied body. But if you're capable of keeping different personalities separate, then you can save Kitty."

Rogue was silent. Indeed the whole table was quiet except for Olivier, who was far more interested in babbling to Gambit while he tried to feed him.

"Are you sure about this?" Rogue asked Psylocke finally. "We know I can keep the personalities of people I absorb separate. We don't know that the same applies to personalties of people transferred into my head via telepathy."

"You're right, there is a difference, and there is a risk," Psylocke said. "But you have a couple of things that no one else here has; experience in managing different personalities in your head, and a mutation that gives you a...a talent for it. You're her best chance. Hell, you're her only chance."

Rogue went quiet again and looked at Gambit. Gambit concentrated on feeding Olivier.

"What do you think, Remy?" she asked finally.

"It's your mind and your body, chère," Gambit replied. "This one's all up to you."

"But it affects you too."

"Assuming it all goes to plan, then it's only for two months," Gambit said, scooping up some more baby cereal up with his spoon. "If it doesn't, well, no offence to Kitty but hopefully your personality will dominate. I don't care to lose my wife."

Rogue chewed her bottom lip and wished everyone would stop looking at her. In the worst case scenario hers and Kitty's personalities would merge and to Rogue's mind that was the scariest possible outcome. She hated it when her psyches influenced her, and her determination not to let her psyches influence her was the very thing that helped her get her powers under control when the 'cure' wore off. Could she be sure that her stubborn refusal and determination to stay her own person would be sufficient to prevent Kitty's personality merging with hers?

On the other hand, there was a chance to save Kitty, and Rogue wasn't sure she could in good conscience deny her that chance, no matter the risks. She _knew_ that if she refused, and Kitty died, she would forever regret it. Beyond that, Rogue didn't want Kitty to die, and when she spoke to her a week ago and told her she wished there was something she could do to help, she had meant it. It hadn't just been a line intended to comfort her.

Rogue looked at Gambit and Olivier. Psylocke was right; she did have a lot of experience with dealing with multiple personalities. In those early days before she had learned how to box up her psyches she had even learned a few tricks to help keep her own personality stable; not an easy task for any teenager. She had little need for such tricks these days, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to use them still.

"Okay," Rogue said finally, looking at Psylocke. "Okay, I'll do it."

"Great," Psylocke said, and the tension at the table seemed to ease somewhat. "Did you need to do anything to prepare? I haven't used my powers much this morning, so I can do the transfer right after breakfast, and the sooner we do this, the easier it'll be."

"No, I don't need to do anything," Rogue said, then glanced down at her breakfast. "Except finish my pancakes."

* * *

><p>It was quiet on the way to the medlab, and when they arrived, Gambit handed Olivier over to Storm.<p>

"So you mind?" he asked. "I want to talk to Rogue in private."

"Of course," Storm replied, and then turned her attention to Olivier who protested the transfer as Gambit and Rogue stepped into an empty room. "Who's a cute little boy?"

It hadn't completely registered with Gambit what was happening, not really. He knew what was happening, but he didn't _know_ what was happening. Rogue had lots of other people in her head, including himself. He found that even being told there was a risk of merging, he couldn't really believe it was even possible.

"So—" Rogue began to say, and was promptly interrupted by Gambit's lips on hers the moment the door was closed. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back for all she was worth.

"I love you," he said, pulling away from her lips for barely a second and then kissing down her neck as he held her close and tight.

"I love you too," Rogue replied. "Remy I... I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work, but I'm probably not just going to be able to shut her away like I do my psyches. People will want to interact with her, and she should really be able to interact with them."

Gambit nipped lightly at her earlobe. "Just as long as I don't wake up next to her in the morning. Now, let's not ruin this moment with chit-chat."

Rogue giggled just a little, recognising one of the orc female flirts. She soon had no breath for giggling.

Back in the main room, Psylocke was in the middle of explaining things to Hank while Storm entertained Olivier, when a particular train of thought in stereo assaulted her mind. She blushed and strengthened her telepathic shields. Well, Rogue and Gambit weren't wasting time, were they? When Rogue and Gambit did finally emerge, Psylocke couldn't bring herself to look at them.

* * *

><p>Kitty was feeling very tired. Her condition had deteriorated rapidly in the last week, and now it was an effort to even attempt to move. It was like wading through molasses to even get her molecules to respond to her. Piotr was sitting with her. They weren't talking, just enjoying each other's company, such as it was.<p>

"Kitty," Psylocke said, both aloud and telepathically, "I've got good news for you. It may be possible to transfer your mind into Rogue's head without your personalities merging before your clone body is ready."

Kitty took a moment to process this.

_"Might be possible?" _she queried, knowing that Psylocke would project her speech to the others.

"There is a risk, we can't say how high," Psylocke said. "But Rogue's agreed to it, and her mutation gives you a chance that we just don't have with anyone else."

"I have a condition though," Rogue said, and everyone turned to look at her while she looked at Kitty. "You do not get to sleep with my husband."

Again, there was a pause from Kitty before she replied: _"I wouldn't dream of it."_

"No, that's not that I said. I said you don't get to sleep with him. Not _dreaming_ about sleeping with Remy would be an impossible request," Rogue said, the faintest hint of a smirk on her face. "I've relived the memories of people in my head in my dreams a lot. No, I couldn't make you promise that and expect you to keep it."

_"Okay,"_ Kitty said after another pause. _"I promise not to sleep with Remy."_

"Thank you," Rogue said, then glanced at Piotr, who was watching her anxiously. "And you don't get to sleep with Piotr or anyone else either. Not in my body."

_"Agreed,"_ Kitty replied, an easy thing to agree to given that she would feel the same way in Rogue shoes, and in any case, while she and Piotr were dating, they weren't actually sleeping together yet.

"Okay," Rogue said. "Let's do this thing."

When Kitty was ready, Psylocke reached out to her and gently began extracting her mind from her disintegrating body. It was no easy task, for Kitty's mind had been pulled and stretched as the molecules of her body drifted further and further apart. Psylocke had to find the edges of Kitty's mind and carefully unhook them from the molecules they were attached to. Once the edges were detached, Psylocke then had to detach the next layer of her mind. It was an exhausting process, and to Psylocke and Kitty it seemed to take hours, although in reality it was only a few minutes.

Once Kitty's mind was completely removed from her body, Psylocke began the transfer into Rogue's head. As Rogue watched Kitty's body completely disintegrate before her eyes, she felt Kitty's mind enter her head, and she tried to make as much room for Kitty as she could. Rogue sensed the stretching that had occurred to Kitty's mind and felt her lethargy. Whimsically, as the transfer completed, Rogue imagined tucking Kitty's mind up in bed, and she felt a smile from her friend as she slept.

"Rogue?" Psylocke asked.

Rogue blinked, only then becoming aware of the rest of the world again.

"She's okay," Rogue said. "She's sleeping."

Psylocke nodded. "The effort of trying to keep her body together was exhausting her."

"And now it's gone," Piotr said quietly, one hand on the empty containment chamber.

Rogue put her hand on Piotr's shoulder.

"But Kitty is not, and when she's rested, I'm sure she'd love to talk to you," Rogue said, and then added wryly. "I'll try not to listen."

Piotr gave her a smile, but it was a sad, solemn one. "I'd appreciate that."


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:**

And just as I did back in _King of Thieves_, anything written ["like this"] is the English translation of something said in French. Just because I thoroughly enjoyed having Gambit switch between the two languages last time ;)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

Kitty was woken up by the sound of someone's little brat kid carrying on at the top of his lungs. She turned over irritably and folded the pillow over her head in an attempt to drown the sound out. Why didn't the kid's parent take care of him? Ugh, it was way too early for this.

Abruptly, her upper body jerked upwards as if trying to sit up. Kitty would have none of it and settled back down in an attempt to continue sleeping. Her body jerked again, and then again, and Kitty wondered at these strange spasms.

_"Let go of my body!"_ Rogue's voice screeched at her.

"Go 'way, Rogue, trying to sleep," Kitty mumbled.

_"You can go back to sleep just as soon as you hand over my body!"_ Rogue yelled at her.

Kitty mumbled and ignored her. Rogue's words made no sense to her whatsoever. She felt movement in the bed next to her but thought nothing of it.

_"Kathryn Pryde! If you don't release my body right now I swear on all you hold dear I will shove you in a box and make you stay there for the next two months!"_

"What on earth are you talking about, Rogue?" Kitty said. "It's too early for nonsense rantings."

In her mind's eye Kitty saw Rogue slam her fist into her face. Her physical head jerked as if she had really been hit, and in that moment of surprise Kitty felt something or someone actually take control of her body. It was terrifying; all of a sudden she was getting out of bed with no control over her limbs. She fought back.

Gambit yawned as he lifted Olivier from the crib, and as he turned and headed towards the change table he couldn't help but notice that Rogue was jerking about with arms and legs flailing in all directions. He might have stopped short and stared if not for Olivier's insistence that he be changed _at once_.

"Are you okay, Rogue?" Gambit asked, a little torn between who it was he should be attending to.

"I'll be better once Kitty stops fighting me for control over my own body," Rogue snapped back angrily. "Pryde! Let go at once! Do not think I will not shove you in a box!"

The jerking stopped, and Rogue took a few deep breaths. She turned her head to look at Gambit and Olivier, both of whom were basically naked at this point. Suddenly one hand flew up and clamped itself over Rogue's eyes.

"What the—Kitty!" Rogue said in her Mississippi accent.

"Omigod! Remy what are you guys doing in my room?" Kitty said in her Chicago accent.

"This is not your room," Rogue said. "This is my room, and I out of the sheer kindness of my heart am allowing you the privilege of sharing my body, or did you forget? Honestly! I try to be hospitable by not shoving you in a box like I do my psyches, and this is the thanks I get? Worst house guest ever!"

"Oookay," Gambit said. "Just so you know, that's the weirdest thing I've seen in a long time, and we're currently living at a school for mutants. I hope it's not going to be an indication of what the next two months are going to be like."

"That makes two of us," Rogue muttered.

_"Oh man, I'm so sorry Rogue,"_ Kitty said. _"I totally forgot. I just woke up and I assumed it was my body."_

"Yeah, I figured it was something like that," Rogue said, and to Gambit's quirked eyebrow, she added: "Kitty forgot she wasn't in her own body any more."

"Uh huh," Gambit replied, reaching for a clean set of clothes for Olivier while his young son babbled away happily on the changing table.

"I'll let you off this time, Kitty," Rogue said with one finger in the air as if lecturing someone, "but I promise you, if you get between me and Olivier again, I will kick your ass."

_"Don't get between mother and child; check,"_ Kitty said.

"And don't go describing him as a 'little brat kid' any more either."

* * *

><p>Gambit went on ahead to the dining hall with Olivier while Rogue and Kitty acquired enough coordination to actually get dressed. Control over Rogue's body was very slippery and could switch from mind to mind without a deliberate decision on either side. Getting dressed should have been an easy experience, after all the two women were quite well acquainted with how to get dressed. Unfortunately, in practice they got dressed differently, and each of their long-formed habits kept interfering with each other. It took them five minutes just to put Rogue's bra on.<p>

Walking to the dining hall for breakfast was also an adventure as both women walked quite differently, moreso because Rogue had been learning how to walk stealthily. While Rogue attempted to walk the way she was taught, every time control slipped to Kitty their stride was completely thrown off, and the same when it happened in reverse. More than once did they stumble into a door or a wall.

After long last they finally made it to the dining hall. This was a very exciting experience for Kitty, who hadn't seen the place nor been capable of speaking properly with her friends or even touching them in months. And here they all were; getting breakfast from the buffet and sitting around the tables chatting. Her eyes fell on Piotr, who just happened to be standing up at that moment, and she ran towards him, arms outstretched.

"Petey!" she exclaimed.

She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist while kissing him soundly. She had missed him so much!

The moment was actually very awkward for pretty much everyone except Kitty and Olivier, the latter of whom was far more interested in picking up pieces of cereal and flinging them on the floor. By this point everyone knew that Kitty was in Rogue's head, but even knowing that, they still saw Rogue kissing Piotr, not Kitty. Gambit gritted his teeth and turned his back on the sight. Reminding himself that it was Kitty in there didn't help at all, so instead he tried to tune the whole thing out.

Piotr cleared his throat uncomfortably as he set Kitty down. There was no illusion on his part, no possible way for him to convince himself it was Kitty he was kissing and not Rogue. They had different body shapes, weights, heights, tongue lengths, lip size... Knowing that Kitty was the one doing the kissing just wasn't enough to convince Piotr that he hadn't just smooched Rogue.

The expression of excitement on Rogue's face changed into something more cynical.

"Oh yes, this has been a wonderful morning," Rogue said sarcastically. "First you don't let me get out of bed, and now you're throwing my body at Pete."

"Hey," Kitty said and most everyone gaped at the sudden change in accent and stance, "it's been months since I've been able to do that. I would think that you of all people would understand what it's like not being able to touch your boyfriend."

"Oh I do, but apparently you have some restraint issues."

"Hey!"

"Just saying it like it is," Rogue said, seemingly oblivious to all the staring. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get some breakfast. Remy, you want anything?"

"I'm right at the moment, chère," Gambit replied, still with his back to them.

Rogue's body half strode, half staggered over to the buffet. They grabbed a plate and started to pick up some toast, only then they got into an argument about how dark or light the toast should be, and which spread to use (they eventually compromised on having one slice to each of their preferences). The next argument was about Kitty's blatant refusal to allow Rogue to eat bacon; they compromised again by having extra thin beef breakfast sausages. There were no dramas with the eggs, but dissolved into another argument when they came to which juice to have.

The arguments, which were verbal, mental, and physical, caused quite the scene and though most people tried to get on with their own breakfast, it was far too easy to get distracted by Rogue and Kitty. Finally, after what took way more time than it should have, Rogue's body arrived at the table and sat down between Olivier and Piotr.

"Well," said Kitty as they set down their plate on the table. "At least we're both right-handed."

* * *

><p>After breakfast, Gambit, Olivier, Rogue and Kitty headed for the surveillance room. While Gambit go straight to work, Rogue and Kitty sat down with Olivier in his playpen for some play time. Kitty had very little experience in dealing with children at this age, and both willingly and determinedly took the back seat while Rogue entertained her son.<p>

It was a strange sensation, being a passenger in someone else's body. Kitty could see out of Rogue's eyes, feel everything she felt, and hear everything she heard just like she normally could in her own body. It was a little frightening even knowing that she was perfectly safe. Kitty hoped that either she would learn to deal with it, or the next two months would go very quickly.

_"Is he supposed to drool that much?"_ Kitty asked after awhile.

"He's teething. Isn't that right, sugah?" Rogue said, wiping some of the saliva off Olivier's face while he concentrated on taking a block out of its container.

Olivier held the block out to her. "Do ba."

"Thank you," Rogue replied, accepting the block with her free hand.

When playtime with Olivier was over, Rogue joined Gambit in their work. She sat down that their computer and pulled up the program they used to view and make notes on the footage.

_"This was programmed by the Thieves Guild for this purpose,"_ Rogue informed Kitty. _"Technically you're not supposed to be seeing this."_

_"No blabbing Guild secrets, got it," _ Kitty said.

_"Actually I was thinking more along the lines of 'forget you ever saw this'," _Rogue replied. _"But that'll do."_

Kitty chuckled. _"Okay, so how does this work?"_

Rogue explained while she demonstrated.

_"First, we load up the footage we want to review...Okay now we hit this little fast forward button here and it zooms forward until it senses movement, at which point it slows it down to real time. We've got time and date here,"_ Rogue told Kitty while she pointed, _"and here we can make notes on what we're seeing."_

As if on cue, the video that Rogue had fast forwarding slowed down so they could see someone coming out of the door that the camera was focused on.

_"That looks like Scalphunter, so we note his name here," _ Rogue said, pointing to the field in question. _"Don't have to use that feature, but in this case it's useful because it means we can track the movement of the Marauders individually, and it helps determine patterns. I'll put in the notes here that he was leaving."_

Once Scalphunter was finished leaving, Rogue hit fast forward again until they got to the next sign of movement. It was quite tedious and after about an hour a little alarm went off.

"And that's our cue to get up and do some exercise," Rogue said. "Can't be sitting down in a chair all day; it's bad for your health."

Kitty found it quite interesting that after every hour or so of work Rogue and Gambit would get up, and either go for a walk, do some weights, or some other form of exercise that didn't involve them sitting down. Of course, time spend working and exercising was also tempered by the need to eat occasionally, go to the bathroom, and attend to Olivier. It was also a very interesting experience for Rogue and Kitty, as just like walking they also had to coordinate their efforts to do any exercising without hurting themselves in the process.

_"Do you do this when you play WoW too?" _Kitty asked.

_"Umm, no... We probably should, but we don't," _Rogue replied wryly.

Kitty giggled.

* * *

><p>"So," Jubilee asked Rogue and Kitty over dinner that night, "how was your first real day sharing the same body?"<p>

"Real day?" Kitty asked.

"It took you a day to recover after the transfer," Rogue said.

"Oh. Well, Jubes, it's been...interesting," Kitty said.

"The word I would use is uncoordinated," Rogue said.

"I would disagree," said Bobby as he stabbed his dinner with his fork. "With both of you in the same body, I only have to look in one direction."

"Because we wouldn't want you to get a stiff neck," Rogue said dryly. "Moron."

"Hey!"

"I'm with her," Kitty said, grinning.

"Oh the other hand," Bobby said, "two of my ex-girlfriends in the one body probably isn't such a good thing."

"Two of?" Rogue inquired. "You mean you've dated other girls? I'm shocked, Bobby, shocked."

"You know what? I'm just going to bow out of this conversation before I get any further behind."

"Smart boy," Gambit said just as his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it: "Gambit."

"Bonjour Oncle Remy. It's Lucian."

"And how's my favourite youngest nephew?" Gambit asked a slight grin on his face.

"Good," Lucian replied, then quickly amended his statement: "Well, mostly. See umm... Claude stole the TV remote and he won't give it back."

Gambit could see Henri's hand in this.

"That's why it's called 'stealing' Lucian," Gambit replied drolly.

"Yeah but...umm...my favourite show is on and he won't let me watch it. He keeps holding it out of reach so I can't change the channel. And sometimes he sits on it," Lucian said. "And I can't get it out from under him."

"Hmm. Just what is your favourite show?" Gambit asked curiously.

"Umm..."

"Your reluctance to tell me just makes me even more interested."

Lucian coughed uncomfortably. "America's Next Top Model."

"Ahh. Hot chicks, hein?"

"Yeah."

"I gotcha," Gambit said with a sly smirk on his face. "Well, one good theft deserves another. You should steal it back from him."

"But I can't! He keeps holding it," Lucian insisted. "And he knows all my pick-pocketing tricks."

"Minor detail," Gambit said and then added thoughtfully: "Although, you don't actually need to steal the remote, do you? What you really need to steal is control over the TV."

"Umm, yeah," Lucian said slowly, "that's what the remote is for."

"The remote is only one way to control the TV," Gambit said, thoroughly enjoying himself and the few curious looks he was getting from those at the table. "But if you can bypass the remote that Claude has stolen, then you render it useless."

"Okay, so how do I bypass the remote?" Lucian asked.

Gambit looked down at his plate and picked up his next bite. "You don't really expect me to give you all the answers do you?"

"Well..."

"You're a smart kid, I'm sure you can figure it out. Was that everything?"

"Pretty much. Oh, Père wants to know how much longer you're going to be."

"Tell him we're going to be going into phase deux in a week or so," Gambit replied. "How much longer depends on the results of phase deux. He's not gonna like that, but that's his problem."

As soon as Gambit hung up, Scott pounced: "What do you mean a few more weeks? My son is—"

"And just how many close calls, lucky breaks, and further injuries are you planning on inflicting on everyone trying to rescue him?" Gambit demanded, pointing his phone at Scott. "Betsy and Kitty lost their bodies, and now one of them is merged with the mind of another woman, while the other is living in the body of my wife. Bobby was walking around in his iceform for months thinking he was going to be stuck like that for the rest of his life. Storm broke bones. You needed surgery. I know it's hard, but there's no sense in risking more lives unnecessarily. You hired me to do a job, let me do it."

"Scott, please," Madelyne said, taking his hand, and then looking at Gambit, "Just what is phase two, may I ask?"

"Phase deux is we find out what things are like on the inside of Sinister's base," Gambit said. "We're going to need Rogue's especial talents for that."

"Why not yours?" Scott challenged him. "You're the great thief."

"Because Victor knows my scent. What's more, when we met, it was while he was working for Stryker," Gambit said coldly, and Scott gaped at him in surprise at this information. "He knows I'm a thief, and if he catches my scent while they have your kid in custody and they're smart they'll make appropriate arrangements. I don't care to tip them off, at least, not before I'm good and ready. In the off-chance that Victor knows Rogue's scent in connection with Mystique, he probably won't suspect her of having anything to do with you. Which reminds me."

Gambit turned and looked at Rogue, who had taken over feeding Olivier while Gambit had been on the phone.

"You and Kitty have been stumbling around like a drunken sailor trying to find his land legs," he said. "I love you ma chère, but I think you should leave the surveillance stuff to me for now while you and Kitty work on being more co-ordinated."

"You know," Psylocke said from across the dinner table, "that's actually a really good sign."

"Tell that to my shins," Rogue said blandly.

"I'm serious," Psylocke insisted. "Look the merging between two minds in one body technically begins as soon as the host mind decides not to reject the incoming mind. The initial merging puts the two minds in sync so they can function on a basic level. Take walking for example; you two are having trouble with that because you're effectively trying to walk two different ways at the same time. On the other hand, Kwannon and Betsy's minds were put into sync within twenty-four hours and as such I've never had any problems walking. Believe me, the fact that you two have to practice and get more co-ordinated is a good indication that your minds haven't merged, and either won't at all, or will take much longer than normal to do so. If I can make a recommendation?"

"Shoot," said Rogue.

"In addition to trying to get more coordinated, make sure you both take time to practice things that are your own," Psycloke said. "Hobbies that you don't share. WoW doesn't count—you both play that."

"Even though I'm a Hordie and she's Alliance scum?" Rogue asked mischievously.

"Hey," Kitty objected. "Need I remind you that the Hordies at this table are severely outnumbered by the Allies?"

"Quality over quantity."

"As I was saying," Psylocke said. "I imagine that the game play is overall the same, regardless of allegiance."

"The woman has a point," Tabitha said smugly.

"Rogue, I guess you already have the advantage over Kitty in that you have a son and husband," Psylocke said. "They should be able to help ground your personality."

Rogue nodded. Psylocke was really just telling her things she already knew.

"I'm sure you're not going to like this Remy," Psylocke went on, "but, Kitty? Go on dates with Pete."

Gambit declined to comment. Piotr picked at his food, a little disturbed by the idea of taking Kitty-in-Rogue's-body out to dinner, and also declined to comment.

"Well that's some tough medicine to take right there," said Bobby. "Oh no I have to go on a date with my boyfriend. How terrible!"

"Swinging for both teams, now Bobby?" Rogue asked.

"You know exactly what I mean, and don't try to turn it into something it's not," Bobby said. "Typical woman."

"Okay, I believe that this is the part of the evening where Bobby should be thankful that Rogue never absorbed ol' one-eye over here," Gambit said, pointing his thumb at Scott.

"I can change that," Rogue said, glaring at Bobby.

"No, I'd really rather you didn't," Gambit said mischievously.

"Worried you might be on the receiving end of the Glare of Death?" Kitty asked, turning Rogue's head away from Bobby so she could look at Gambit, much to Bobby's relief.

"The thought may have crossed my mind."

"Kitty, Rogue," Logan said then from a few chairs down. "Why don't you join me for Tai Chi in the mornings?"

"That sounds like a great idea," Rogue said warmly. "I'd love to. So would Kitty."

* * *

><p>After dinner, Scott caught up to Gambit. Gambit sighed when he heard Scott call his name and looked at Olivier, resting in his arms.<p>

["You remember Scott, yes? He's what we call an irate, interfering customer,"] Gambit said to Olivier. ["One day you too will have to deal with customers. The good news is that we're Thieves, not retail assistants."]

"Uhh," Scott said, standing beside Gambit. "I don't speak French."

"That's okay, I wasn't talking to you," Gambit replied, a slight smirk on his face. "What do you want? Aside from the obvious."

"I didn't know that you'd been a prisoner of Stryker," Scott said.

"Deux years," Gambit said. "That's how long it took me to escape."

"That was you?" Scott exclaimed. "I was only there a few days, but when I asked, they said only one person ever escaped."

"Oui, that was me," Gambit said gravely. "Believe me, I fully understand the situation that Nate's in and I don't intend to let him continue to be experimented on any longer than necessary. I've got much more experience than I did when I was a teenager, and the advantage of actually having tools at my disposal. I will get your son out."

Scott nodded.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Okay," Rogue said the following morning as Gambit got dressed. "We're off to see Logan. I'll see you and Oli at breakfast."

"Okay," Gambit said.

She gave him a quick kiss on the lips and then began to leave the bedroom. At some point just before they reached the door, control slipped to Kitty, and they walked right into the door. The force knocked them to the floor.

"Hey are you okay?" Gambit asked stepping towards her.

"Yeah, yeah," said Rogue while Kitty's mind hid in shame. "Kitty forgot she can't phase and tried to walk through the door."

Gambit snickered. "Sorry, I shouldn't laugh..."

"But you will anyway," Rogue said, getting up off the floor and throwing a grin at him. "We're going to go over how to use my powers later today."

Gambit nodded. "Good idea."

Rogue and Kitty caught up with Logan and wished him a good morning. He didn't even grunt in reply, and led them to one of the more secluded parts of the gardens where he was normally able to practice his Tai Chi in peace.

The session did wonders to help the women acquire a mindset where they could actually work together to accomplish basic tasks without fumbling over each other. Not just walking, but getting dressed, brushing their hair and teeth, having a shower, going to the toilet, and many other such details that both of them already knew how to do but did them differently in small and subtle ways. It would take them multiple sessions before they even came close to mastering the skill, but it was a good start.

After breakfast and play time with Olivier, Rogue and Kitty made use of the Danger Room. On the first day, Rogue wasn't expecting to let Kitty do anything dangerous with her powers, but the Danger Room was unoccupied at that hour, so she figured, why not?

In her mind's eye, Rogue imagined herself and Kitty standing before a large, long set of shelves. Upon the shelves were boxes in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

"What are they?" Kitty asked Rogue as she looked at the boxes.

"All my psyches," Rogue replied solemnly.

Kitty gaped, taking in the sheer number of them. "How many are there?"

"No idea," Rogue said with a shrug. "Some of them I've absorbed so little of they're not even worth counting in a way. I absorbed a lot of people while I was teaching myself to get my powers under control. If I were to guess... I'd say there was sixty or seventy."

"You're joking!" Kitty exclaimed.

Rogue smirked and gestured to the boxes. "You can count them for yourself, if you want."

"I'll take your word for it," Kitty said with a wave of her hand. "And they just sit here in your boxes all day?"

"Yup. It's the only way to shut 'em up," Rogue said, and picked up one of the smallest boxes, about the size of a jewellery box for a ring. "I don't even know who this person is."

She opened up the box. Kitty looked around expectantly but nothing appeared to have changed.

"I'm sorry, what—" she started to say.

"Shh," Rogue said, pressing her index finger to her lips. "Listen."

Kitty frowned and listened. At first she didn't hear anything, and just when she was going to question Rogue again, she caught the faintest whisper. Who it was or what they were saying, Kitty couldn't tell. She couldn't make out any words, but once she was aware of the voice, the more annoying it got, like the buzzing of an insect in your ear.

"What is that?" Kitty asked.

Rogue grinned and lifted the box. "The psyche I usually keep in here. It was the first person I absorbed when my powers came back. The whispering drove me crazy all day until I figured out what the heck it was."

Rogue reached out and grabbed something from the air. Then she held out a little glowing colour ball between her finger and thumb. "This is the core. Every psyche has a core. For small psyches like this one, finding and catching the core is the hard part. Once you have it, you can stuff it inside its box, like so."

Kitty watched as Rogue put the psyche away.

"Now let's see," Rogue said, wandering down in front of all the boxes. "Which one shall we... Oh, of course."

Rogue pulled out a box about the size of a large shoe box. Kitty walked over to see and Rogue grinned at her when she saw that the name on the box said "Kitty."

"Me?" Kitty asked, half excited, half nervous.

"Well, you already know how to use your own powers," Rogue said. "No point in making the learning experience any harder than it needs to be. Open it."

Kitty reached out and put her hands on the lid. At first the lid seemed stuck fast and Kitty had trouble opening it. This was mildly embarrassing as the box looked like it was made of cardboard; there were no locks or latches, the lid should come straight off. Still, eventually she got the lid off, and a shade of her seventeen-year-old self emerged. The psyche also began rambling on about things that Kitty remembered being concerned about back then, and about being in the DR and wondering what Logan had in mind this time, and a whole host of other things that seemed to form no congruent pattern.

"Do I always blather on like this?" Kitty asked, both curious and disconcerted.

"Yes, and no," Rogue replied with a teasing grin. "What you're hearing is not your psyche's attempt at conversation; it's actually stream of consciousness. Everyone's mind is always thinking things over, processing, reacting; this is probably the kind of thing that telepaths hear from everyone if they don't shield themselves properly. It's also likely what Betsy sensed when she sees multiple thought patterns inside my head."

"Does she ever shut up?" Kitty asked.

"Nope. None of them do," Rogue said, considered, then smirked and started opening up other boxes. "Let's see, Logan, Bobby, Pete, Magneto, Pyro, David, Angela, Brad, Lance, Danny..."

"Who are those last ones?" Kitty asked, having to raise her voice to be heard over the noise.

"People I absorbed after my power manifested before I came here," Rogue shouted back. "This is what I used to hear all the time before I got the 'cure'."

Kitty gaped at her. "You're joking! How could you even think?"

"Sometimes I couldn't!"

Mercifully, Rogue put the extra psyches away, swiftly with the hand of much practice.

"I don't even want to consider what it would be like in here if you let out all your psyches at once," Kitty said once only her psyche remained.

"Well, those were most of the loudest ones," Rogue said thoughtfully, regarding the rest of the boxes. "Still, the quantity of voices would probably increase the overall volume until it was so loud I couldn't hear anything at all. Actually, that might be pretty effective against any telepath trying to read my mind."

"Might be a little hard for you to concentrate on whatever you're working on, though," Kitty said.

Rogue shrugged. "You win some, you lose some. But I digress. If control slips to you while we're working, you need to be able to handle my abilities. So, let's practice accessing and using your own powers. Now, while your psyche is out, you should be able to phase through things."

Kitty called up a program she liked to use in the Danger Room and began to practice. She wasn't immediately successful, in fact her first attempt send her colliding with the wall much like she had with the bedroom door that morning. Still, come the end of the session Kitty had gotten the hang of it, as well as accessing and putting away her psyche.

"Do I get to absorb someone?" Kitty asked as they left the Danger Room.

"Maybe later, if someone volunteers."

* * *

><p>"Everyone here?" Storm said, looking around the War Room. "Alright then—"<p>

"Uhh," Piotr spoke up, "Kitty isn't here."

"I know," Storm said, sounding apologetic, "but Kitty can't attend the meeting unless Rogue comes too."

"So?" asked Bobby.

"Like it or not, Rogue is with the Thieves Guild now, not the X-men," Storm said. "If she was pursuing a...honest career I might have invited her, but that is not the case."

"Rogue wouldn't betray us," Bobby insisted, outraged at the very idea. "She's not like that."

"I am well aware just how serious Rogue is about not betraying people," Storm replied in her usual calm. "I am not suggesting that she would; certainly not voluntarily. The same applies to Remy. This is not about trust, it is about security, and I assure you that Remy would be the first person to insist that they shouldn't be included on any X-men general business meetings just out of principle. For that same reason, I sincerely doubt that Rogue would be at all offended by her exclusion."

Bobby grumbled, but let it go.

"Now, Tabitha," Storm said, "I believe you have an update on Sam's activities."

"Right," Tabitha said with a nod, sitting up straight as everyone looked at her. "Sam and I figured out a way for him to send us copies of documents that the Friends of Humanity keep on their peer to peer network. It's slow going 'cause we want to be discreet about it, but we just completed their list of 'known mutants' which they intend to use to track down the more dangerous mutants so they can be prepared to not only find them, but take them out when they do."

Tabitha picked up the printed copies and handed them to Paige, who was sitting next to her. Paige took the first copy off the top and handed the rest of the pile to her neighbour, who did the same.

"These are all the mutants they know about so far," Tabitha said. "You'll probably notice that there's some familiar names on it; Hank."

Hank nodded. He wasn't really surprised; he was the former Secretary for Mutant Affairs, after all.

"Mystique's on here, so is Sabretooth, Magneto, and Wolverine," Tabitha said. "Rogue and Gambit are on here too."

"Still think they shouldn't be at this meeting?" Bobby asked Storm.

"Naturally we shall advise them of details that actually concern them," Storm replied. "Continue please, Tabitha."

"The funny thing with Rogue and Wolverine," Tabitha went on, throwing a sly smirk at Logan, "is that the Friends of Humanity seem to be under the impression Wolverine and Rogue are father and daughter."

"Well that's weird," Bobby said. "Why would they think that?"

"Maybe because when I went looking for Rogue," Logan said, looking down the list for their names, "they saw her with claws, and me with claws, they made an assumption I didn't bother correcting them about."

"Rogue's friends in California?" Bobby asked as Logan read what the Friends of Humanity apparently 'knew' about them.

"They know very little about Gambit, but they know Rogue used to go by Marie and does motorcycle racing," Logan said. "They're also unclear on what her mutant abilities actually are. Can't have been anyone she grew up with, anyone here, or anyone in New Orleans."

"Well, that's good news," Psylocke said. "We actually know who some of these 'Friends of Humanity' are now."

"Yes, that may prove useful at a later date," Storm said with a nod. "Anyone else we know on there?"

"The Brotherhood; Pyro, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Avalanche. They don't seem to know about Mastermind," Tabitha said, "but that could just be because her abilities are a bit more discreet or something. Kitty's on the list, but all they know about her is 'a girl from Illinois who can walk through walls'. Rusty's in a similar position: they know about a pyrokinetic mutant who burned a woman at the same time and place that Rusty did when his powers manifested, but they don't have a name or anything else that can identify either of them."

"They don't know about the school?" Storm queried as she looked through the list.

"Sam doesn't think so. He did say that he added to the rumour mongering about Wolverine," Tabitha said with a nod towards Logan. "He thought if he made you sound dangerous enough the, umm, 'lackeys' would be scared off trying to find you. Not that he doesn't think you can't deal with them just fine, but he didn't want them to go looking for you and find the school."

Logan nodded.

"Has he told them anything else?" Storm asked.

Tabitha shook her head. "If he has, he hasn't mentioned it to me. But I think if he had any concerns that anything he may have said would have endangered someone else, he would have mentioned it."

"Any progress on finding out who this '100' fellow is?" asked Psylocke, remembering the reason why Sam was spying on these guys in the first place.

"Oh yeah," Tabitha said. "He thinks it's this guy who calls himself 'Tribune'. He recently updated his kill count; a hundred and fourteen. According to Sam, Tribune is very serious about his killing. He's also smart, asks lots of questions, and comes across as being completely rational."

"How can a bigot possibly be rational?" Paige asked scornfully.

"Just because their hate is irrational does not mean that they are irrational in all areas of their life," Storm said. "In my experience, the most frightening bigots of all are just like this 'Tribune', capable of committing great injustices and atrocities, and doing it in a calm, controlled, business-like manner."

* * *

><p>After the meeting, Bobby headed to the surveillance room and opened the door. Gambit and Rogue (and Kitty) were on the computers, while Olivier napped in his playpen with a brown teddy bear. Bobby knocked on the open door and Rogue turned around.<p>

"Oh hey, Bobby," she said. "Just a second..."

Rogue finished up what she was doing, then got up and approached Bobby. She ignored the flash of nerves she felt from Kitty.

"What can I do for you?" Rogue asked.

"Well, the X-men just had a meeting..." Bobby began awkwardly.

"We did?" asked Kitty, tucking a lock of Rogue's hair behind her ear.

"Uhh, yeah... We would have invited you, Kitty, 'cept that, umm," Bobby said refusing to look them in the eye, "Storm didn't think it would be a good idea if Rogue was there."

Rogue laughed. At least, Bobby thought it was Rogue laughing. It was hard to tell. Abruptly the laughter was cut off.

"Why's that so funny?" Kitty demanded.

"Well for one thing, I don't have to sit through any more X-men meetings," Rogue said. "I had wondered if I'd get invited or not because of you."

"How are you not upset?" Kitty asked. "Storm's basically saying she doesn't trust you."

"I wouldn't trust me either if I was in her shoes," Rogue replied wickedly. "My first loyalties are to my family and the Thieves Guild. Storm knows this. Should the demands of the Guild and the demands of the X-men ever come into conflict, Storm has to presume that I will choose the Thieves Guild over you. Sorry, but that's how it is."

"Oh come on, Rogue," Bobby said disgustedly. "You're the most loyal person I know, and I..."

He trailed off and looked down at the ground, knowing full well how he repaid that loyalty. Rogue also felt a stab of guilt from Kitty.

"This isn't about what would happen in practice," Rogue said. "This is about what would happen in theory. Storm's covering her bases and she's right to do so. Now, I presume there's something about this meeting you've agreed to pass on?"

Bobby nodded. "Right. Uhh, we've been monitoring an anti-mutant group; an online community called the Friends of Humanity. It's basically a collection of people who practice violence against mutants. Most of their members have like, less than five kills to their name; it's only a small portion that have more than that. Anyway, they've been compiling a list of known mutants. Rogue, yours and Remy's names are on it. And you're sort of on it Kitty, they don't know your name, but they know your powers and that you're from Illinois."

He handed them a copy of the document, and Rogue and Kitty looked at it curiously.

"Logan thinks that your friends in California are members, or at least one of them, Rogue," Bobby said. "They seem to think you're his daughter."

"Oookay," Rogue said.

"Because of the claws."

"I see," Rogue said, then looked towards her husband. "Hey Remy, you catch that?"

"What?" Gambit asked distractedly.

"We're on the hit list for some anti-mutant group called the Friends of Humanity," Rogue told him.

"That's nice, chère."

Bobby raised his eyebrows. "I don't think he heard you correctly, Rogue."

"Nah, he heard exactly what I said," Rogue replied with a smirk. "He's just used to folks being out to get him."

"How can anyone get used to that?" Kitty asked.

"The same way you get used to other things; they just keep happening over and over again," Rogue replied with a shrug. "Thanks for the heads up all the same."

"Umm, you're welcome," Bobby replied.

As Bobby left, Rogue mentally pounced on Kitty.

_"Okay," _Rogue demanded, _"what was that about?"_

_"Umm, sorry?"_ Kitty replied, shying away from her.

_"You still have a thing for Bobby, don't you?" _Rogue snapped.

_"No I don't—"_

Rogue made a rude noise.

_"I'm sorry, did you think I wouldn't notice you getting all hot and bothered?"_ Rogue mentally yelled at her. _"What the hell is wrong with you? You had your chance with Bobby, now you're with Pete. Make up your damn mind, woman!"_

_"It's not like that! And I was not getting hot and bothered," _Kitty replied angrily. _"Okay, so maybe there's still some attraction between us, but that's all it is. Bobby and I split up. We never should have gotten together and not just because it involved cheating on you. Our entire relationship has become all about sex and I can't just... I can't just turn it off, okay? I love Pete, I really do. And I'm not going to go behind his back, I swear."_

_"You had better not, because if I ever find out you've done to Pete what you did to me, I'll make sure you live to regret it."_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Gambit was not a happy man.

He didn't see how anyone could be in his situation; preparing for a night alone with his eleven month old son, while his wife—or at least the person in control of his wife's body—prepared to go on a date with another man. Normally Gambit could take Rogue's other personalities with good humour, but he'd also seen what happened that one time she let Mystique's personality have just a little too much say in what she did. He felt that Kitty had far too much say too. Even more than Mystique had. He was not amused.

Gambit sat on the floor of their bedroom and played with Olivier. He didn't look up when Kitty emerged from the bathroom. He didn't want to see Rogue's body looking stunning for a night out with another man.

"Hey, Remy," Kitty said. "Rogue wanted me to ask you what you thought."

"I'm sure you look fine," Gambit replied, keeping his eyes trained on Olivier.

There was a knock on the door. Kitty looked at it and then back at Gambit. "She insists."

Gambit stifled a sigh and looked up. As soon as his eyes fell on Kitty, he burst out laughing.

"You look perfect, petite," he said, grinning as Kitty walked to the door. "Just perfect."

"Why thank you," Kitty said, and opened the door to find Piotr standing there. "Hi sweetie."

Piotr stared, completely shocked at what he saw.

"Kitty?" he exclaimed. "But...how...you..."

Kitty giggled and took his arm. "Later Remy."

"Later," Gambit replied, smirking. "Have a good night."

Kitty stepped out and shut the door behind her. "Today Rogue and I practised using Mystique's powers. It went pretty well, and Rogue said I could use her powers for our date tonight."

"Well," Piotr said as they headed down the hall. "Thank you to Rogue, then. I will admit I'm...relieved. I was not really looking forward to taking you out on a date and spending the whole evening looking at my married friend."

"Yeah, I can see how that might feel a bit awkward," Kitty said.

While Kitty and Piotr enjoyed their evening together, Rogue tried to keep as much out of it as possible. Fortunately, she was able to occupy herself by trying to keep Mystique's psyche from disrupting Kitty. Rogue especially didn't want any of Mystique's more sordid memories to come to Kitty's mind while she was on a date and end up giving her ideas. Ever since her revelation about Kitty's lingering feelings for Bobby, Rogue had become increasingly distrustful of her.

It was impossible to shut Mystique up, of course; as long as she was out of her box, Rogue and Kitty would continue to hear her voice. Still while Kitty utilised Mystique's powers, there was no reason why Rogue couldn't go through her memories.

The first and foremost memories to be avoided were Mystique's vast collection of sexual experiences, which Rogue had acquired when she and Mystique had to pose as twins in order to get information from the head of security of the sentinel plant. Rogue hated those memories, but they served their purpose.

The second time Rogue had absorbed Mystique, it was first to find out who she was and why she tried to kill Gambit. She didn't have to try very hard to get that information, but just as easily came the knowledge of why she and Irene had abandoned her in the first place; Mystique wanted her to know what really happened. From there Rogue sought out memories of Kurt's birth and abandonment, and any other siblings they might have. She also located knowledge of Mystique's financial holdings, secret stashes, and personal safe houses. It had been a very long, slow absorption, unlike the first one, which had been voluntary and much easier as a result.

In between all of that, from both absorptions, were 'junk' memories. Things that she hadn't intended to take, but couldn't choose not to pick up. Some of these memories really were 'junk' in the sense that they were only memories of trivial details such as eating breakfast, driving, and going to the toilet. Between all the everyday things, however, there were more substantial memories. Memories of things Rogue hadn't been interested in at the time, but weren't actually 'junk'. It was through these memories Rogue decided to pick through, just to see what she could find.

Most of them weren't very interesting, or lacked sufficient context for Rogue to make any real sense of them. Still, there were a few that caught her attention:

x-x-x

_She stared blankly at Irene's children playing on the floor, a mug between her hands. Part of her was watching the children, another part was imagining her beautiful blue baby boy playing with them. If only she had known that the child was going to be Azazel's. She was certain if she had any idea that her baby would so obviously take after his parents at birth she could have made better arrangements. If she had just known!_

_Wait..._

_Slowly she lifted her head to look at Irene. Despite being blind, she knew that Irene knew she was looking at her._

_"You knew," she said accusingly as angry and betrayal washed over her. "You knew! And you didn't tell me?"_

_Irene sipped at her tea. "I did tell you that you'd regret it if you married the baron."_

x-x-x

_She watched with a pale hand raised in good bye as Graydon got on the bus, dressed in the uniform of the boarding school he attended. He looked very smart and handsome, but all the same she couldn't help but wish Graydon was blue with a tail._

x-x-x

_Erik was waiting for her by the car, a supercilious smile on his face._

_"You're back quick," he said as she walked through the open gates. "Was Graydon conveniently watering the lawn?"_

_"DNA scanners," she replied irritably._

_"Ahh yes," Erik said with a sage nod of his head. "Another fine legacy from the Sentinel program."_

x-x-x

_She looked up and hid her smile as Marie approached her table in the diner, wearing her blue waitress uniform. She was thrilled to see Marie wasn't wearing gloves and hoped that meant she hadn't been adversely affected by the 'cure' wearing off._

_"Morning sugah," Marie said, pen and pad in hand. "Ready to order?"_

x-x-x

_Her heart caught in her throat as the X-men got off the battered Blackbird. There was a new member who walked down the ramp with Rogue; a blue-skinned man, with yellow eyes, and a tail that reminded her distinctly of Azazel's. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible! Her son died. She threw him off a bridge! He would have been killed the moment he touched the surface of the water. It had to be a coincidence._

_It took all of Mystique's restraint not to stare at him and to keep a composed expression on her face._

Rogue had seen that memory before, but what she hadn't noticed was a fragment of memory from later that evening. At first Rogue intended to bypass it, as Mystique was feeling rather needy and it started off with her lying on top of someone while kissing them. Then she realised that 'someone' was Logan and a morbid part of her had to see how it would play out:

_His fingers grazed the three scars on her stomach where he had stabbed her last time they met, and he froze. He looked at her accusingly. She realised she had been sprung, but she didn't really care as long as she got something to drive the pain away_

_"No one's ever left a scar quite like you," she said as she shifted back to normal._

_She wanted him badly and she wanted him now._

_"What do you want, an apology?" Wolverine asked cynically._

_She leaned down and whispered into his ear. "You know what I want."_

_She licked his ear and he flinched._

_"But what do you want?" she asked, lifting her head once more._

_She didn't care if he preferred to be with someone else. And to emphasise the point, she shifted into Storm, and then into Marie. Sure it would be weird having sex while pretending to be her daughter, but if that's what he wanted, that's what he would get. She shifted into a blonde form she liked to use and he pushed her off._

Rogue freaked out.

_"Rogue?" _Kitty asked, unable to avoid feeling Rogue's stronger emotions._ "You okay?"_

_"Mind your own business, Pryde, and get back to your date already."_

_"Geez, I was only asking."_

"Kitty?" Piotr inquired, noticing her inattention.

"Oh. Rogue's poking through Mystique's memories and trying to keep her from bothering me," Kitty said with a shrug. "I think she found something that flipped her out, but when I asked she just told me off."

"Ahh," Piotr replied with a slow nod. "I'm sure it's nothing."

* * *

><p>After the date was over, Rogue tucked Mystique's psyche away with pleasure while Kitty happily settled down in the back of Rogue's head for a good night's sleep. Rogue returned to their bedroom and smiled when she found Gambit and Olivier fast asleep on the bed. They looked just so adorable curled up together.<p>

It didn't last long. No sooner than did Rogue put Kitty's bag down on the table than did Gambit stir. Even in his sleep, Gambit was always on guard.

"Hey," Rogue said.

"Hey," he replied, sounding a little groggy as he raised his head and looked around. "How'd your date go?"

"Kitty's date went fine, as far as I know," Rogue said as she undressed. "My evening was a little bit more disturbing. I spent it going through Mystique's memories."

"Oh yeah?"

"She propositioned Logan once," Rogue said.

Gambit grunted softly and he checked over Olivier. "That doesn't surprise me."

"She offered to be anyone he wanted," Rogue went on.

"Still not surprised."

"Including me."

Gambit paused and looked up at Rogue as she dropped her dirty clothes into a pile.

"I want to say I'm surprised," Gambit said slowly, "but I'm not. I mean this is the woman who planned on killing me by pretending to be you and luring me into the bedroom, so... yeah, not surprised. Disturbed, but not surprised. Do I want to know what Logan did?"

"Rejected her, thank goodness," Rogue said, sighing with relief as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I still don't know how I'm going to look Logan in the eye again."

Gambit chuckled lightly, then carefully picked up Olivier so not to wake him, something he had gotten rather good at. He carefully placed Olivier back into his crib.

"Logan won't have a clue why you're suddenly not looking at him," Gambit said as he walked back to the bed, removing his own clothes on the way. "And then you'll have to explain."

"And it'll be even more awkward," Rogue said, shaking her head, then shuddered. "Ugh, I can't believe she was prepared to have sex while pretending to be me. That's so creepy."

Gambit wrapped his arms around her and kissing her cheek softly.

"Oui it is," he agreed. "I think she's just jealous 'cause she's not the real Rogue.

Rogue sighed as she snuggled up next to Gambit and rested her head on his shoulder.

"She visited me once, when I was working in the diner. She was a customer," Rogue said. "I just... If someone had just told me that, I would have thought she was stalking me or something, but being in her head... She was just worried about me. And even though he's human and she spent his entire youth wishing he was Kurt, she checks up on Graydon too. I'm having this crazy idea that she might actually care about us even though she abandons us and treats us like dirt."

"And blatant disrespect," Gambit added. He kissed her temple. "I don't know what to tell you, ma chère. Maybe she does. Got a funny way of showing it though."

Rogue sighed and laid back down on the bed, taking Gambit with her.

"I don't want to think about her any more," Rogue said.

"Hmm," Gambit replied, looking at her with a suggestive gleam in his eye. "Let's see what I can do to help you forget."

Rogue grinned mischievously back at him. "Please do."

So Gambit proceeded to do just that and revelled in all the ways Rogue responded to him, giving him ample proof that his preferred method of distracting his wife was working very, very well. Just when Rogue had forgotten that she wanted to forget something, she said:

"Oh Pete."

Gambit jerked back at the exclamation. Rogue's eyes shot open and she covered her mouth, but of course, it was far too late.

"Ohmigod, Remy, that was Kitty, I swear," Rogue said urgently. "I thought she was asleep! She must have sensed what we were doing—"

"Sounds like she's having a great dream then," Gambit replied shortly as he turned his back on her.

"Remy, I swear, nothing happened between Pete and I tonight," Rogue said, panic rising as Gambit leaned over the side of the bed. "I didn't—"

"Rogue," Gambit said, turning over to look at her, now with a pair of pajama pants in his hand. "I know you didn't cheat on me. If you say it was Kitty, then it was Kitty, and I believe you."

"You... you do?"

"Of course I do. I trust you completely," Gambit said, and felt a note of satisfaction when Rogue's face flushed angrily. "I know you would never cheat on me. No, it's Kitty I don't trust. Why should I? The first thing I ever learned about her, even before I knew her name, was that she betrayed you."

Rogue sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, I know."

"I'm a jealous man, chère," Gambit said, pulling on his pants. "I don't like sharing you."

"Really? I never would have guessed," she replied sarcastically.

"I don't like that Kitty has control over your body whenever she feels like it," Gambit went on darkly. "I don't trust her with your body."

"I couldn't let her die. I just... I couldn't," Rogue said, closing her eyes.

"I know that, and I appreciate that, but this two months won't be over soon enough. This situation has given her far too much power over you, Roguey, much more power than I thought it would, and certainly far more power than she's worthy of," Gambit said with cold eyes. "I'd rather be competing with that stupid bear."

"Hey," Rogue objected, glaring at him. "That bear is not stupid. That bear was my best friend for years and helped me get through it when my powers started coming back. Do not belittle the bear. And you were never competing with him."

"Sure 'cause you never took him to bed with you when I wasn't there."

"Oh for goodness sake, he's an inanimate object!" Rogue exclaimed. "I always took him to bed with me when I felt lonely. What? You think babies are the only ones who need security blankets?"

"Oui," Gambit replied loftily. "Next thing I know, I'm going to find out that Oli's really his."

Rogue raised an eyebrow. Gambit smirked at her with a twinkle of mischief in his eye.

"You are such a dork," she declared.

"But you still love me like crazy."

"Yes I do."

Gambit grinned at her and then pulled the covers over them. He kissed her lips gently.

"I love you Roguey, but if Kitty's going to continue to make appearances every time we get intimate, it's going to be a very long two months," he said. "I've never been the 'two at once' kind of guy."

"Yeah, that might require sharing," Rogue replied smartly.

"Exactly, and I'm greedy," Gambit said, snuggling up to her under the covers. "I want you all to myself."

He still wanted her, still wanted to keep going with their previous activity before they were so rudely interrupted. But Kitty had reminded him of her presence, and Gambit found it very off-putting. He didn't care for an audience. He also didn't like cuddling Rogue and wondering if it was really Rogue he was with.

He would have been less pleased had he known that Kitty had started talking to Rogue almost the second that her head hit the pillow again:

_"I'm so sorry, Rogue. I didn't mean to spoil things for you," _Kitty said, all the while feeling somewhat relieved things between Gambit and Rogue hadn't gone any further. There were some things she just did not want to be witness to, even subconsciously.

_"Just forget about it, Kitty,"_ Rogue replied.

Rogue felt like Gambit had a point. She was trusting Kitty with something huge. A lot more than she would have ever considered trusting her with in ordinary circumstances, especially given previous betrayal.

_"I heard that," _Kitty said crossly. _"I'm not going to doing anything bad with your body. Geez. What do you take me for?"_

_"Kitty, I don't trust anyone. Not even Remy," _Rogue replied irritably. _"And I love Remy! You'd think if there was anyone in the world I would trust, it would be him! But no, as I found out myself a couple of months ago, I don't. It's driving me nuts. So don't you start getting all offended because I don't trust you either. Unlike Remy, you've actually done something to earn my distrust."_

Kitty grumbled at that. Rogue then felt a stab of guilt from Kitty, started to feel bad, and then started to feel annoyed for feeling bad that Kitty felt guilty. Why should she feel bad? She hadn't done anything wrong. She hadn't betrayed anyone. She hadn't cheated. If anything she'd been a saint! Why, she had agreed to help both Kitty and Bobby even after everything they'd done. Twice to Bobby, actually if one felt like counting rescuing him from the Sentinel manufacturing plant, which Rogue was completely prepared to do.

_"Oh stop matyring yourself," _Kitty said disgustedly. _"You're no saint, not even close. You're more like... like a big sister."_

Rogue made what would have been a rude noise if they were having this conversation aloud.

_"What would you know about big sisters? You don't have any sisters or brothers," _Rogue said.

_"I know this much; I know that no matter how much we might fight, you still care about us just as much as we care about you," _Kitty said firmly. _"I know that no matter how bad our fights might get, we've still got each other's back. You helped me and Bobby because you're not going to let some outsider hurt us. If anyone's going to hurt us, it's going to be you."_

Rogue laughed.

_"Do you know how crazy that sounds?" _ Rogue asked.

_"Yup. But you know what? If anything were to happen to you, I'd be right there by your side, ready to help you kick their scrawny little butts," _Kitty said decisively.

_"Just scrawny little ones? What about big fat ones?"_

_"Those too."_

_"Or tight medium ones?"_

_"Especially those."_

They giggled inwardly.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Rogue was back in Connecticut, this time with Kitty in tow. They'd gotten plenty of practice in with Kitty managing Rogue's psyches, but hadn't had a chance to broach the subject of practising absorbing new people before Gambit announced they were ready for the next phase. Scott and Madelyne were both thrilled to hear that.

Prior to making that particular declaration, Rogue and Gambit had gone through the various Marauders for the optimal target. Lady Mastermind was ruled out immediately, partly because she was a telepath, and partly because they hadn't seen her at all. They ruled out Riptide because he too, hadn't been seen. Victor was ruled out because they didn't want him to remember her scent after he got knocked out from being absorbed and be on the alert for her later. Scrambler was also ruled out because according to Scott, he could knock out a mutant's powers by touch, and since Rogue's powers also worked by touch, they decided it would be better not to take the risk of the absorption failing.

That left Vertigo, Harpoon, Scalphunter, and Blockbuster. There was much hemming and hawing, discussion over which of these four Marauders presented the best opportunity for absorption, and figuring out which of these four would have the most useful abilities to Rogue in the long term. It wasn't unusual for Scalphunter to stay out all night, so as long as Rogue could get him alone, she should be able to absorb him slowly enough to find all the plans for the base and the security arrangements thereof without anyone noticing his absence.

Scalphunter was already in the bar he frequented when Rogue and Kitty arrived, in the exact same place Rogue had seen him last time she was here. She sauntered over, feeling rather nasty about what she was about to do. The fact was, because Sinister and Lady Mastermind were telepaths, Rogue and Gambit agreed that using Mesmero's powers to direct Scalphunter to think about what she wanted him to think about and then forget they had that discussion before absorbing him would not be a good idea. Once that had been decided, they didn't talk about the method Rogue would have to fall back on to get the job done: seduction.

Rogue sat down on a bar stool next to Scalphunter and the bartender approached her. She had shapeshifted into a busty blonde woman.

"I'll have a beer and another one of whatever he's having," Rogue said, gesturing to Scalphunter.

Scalhunter glanced at her. She smiled back at him.

"Hey cutie," she said as the bartender set about getting the drinks.

Although Scalphunter was more than happy to accept a free drink, it quickly became evident that he was not interested in company. Rogue had a few unsavoury things to say about 'what kind of mercenary doesn't like company' that made Kitty giggle. Rogue attempted to switch it to just getting him completely drunk (although she did not relish the idea of absorbing someone who was drunk any better), but Scalphunter wasn't cooperating in that area either.

Finally, irritated, but at a loss, Rogue was forced to call it quits. They'd have to target one of the other Marauders instead. She turned on her barstool with the intention of leaving and calling Gambit as soon as she got out the door, and immediately came face to face with Victor.

"Who's the broad, Greycrow?" Victor asked Scalphunter, whilst running his eyes over Rogue.

Scalphunter glanced back at Victor and Rogue, shrugged, and went back to his drink. "Who cares?"

"Marie," Rogue said, deciding that was the best name to give in the off chance he did actually meet her as a child under Mystique's care. "Can I buy you a drink, hot stuff?"

_"Rogue!" _Kitty exclaimed. _"I thought we decided against Victor!"_

_"We did, but Scalphunter isn't taking the bait and Victor might," _Rogue replied.

Victor did in fact 'take the bait', and a couple of drinks later they headed upstairs to a room that Victor was apparently renting. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Victor turned to her with extended claws on the ends of his fingers. Rogue took in the growth immediately.

"My oh my," she said coyly. "What big claws you have."

It turned out that Victor was not one for foreplay. He had Rogue down on the bed before she could blink, but was fortunately able to make skin contact with him before he started ripping her clothes off. As Victor landed on top of her, his body quite a heavy weight, images started pouring into Rogue's mind.

_"Omigod!"_ Kitty exclaimed. _"That's horrible! I know some people like it rough, but that's practically murder."_

Rogue wasn't particularly fond of the sexual imagery—if one could call it that—which first entered her mind either.

_"Maybe it is. Please don't distract me right now, Kitty. I'm trying to maintain a slow drain while I find the information that I want. Do not go rifling through his sexually deviant thoughts. Do not even consider thinking about any sexual thoughts, at all. It might disrupt my search and end up picking up more of those little fantasies and memories."_

Rogue really wished at that moment that they had a chance to practice absorbing people prior to this, but it couldn't be helped now. Rogue kept up the slow drain as she searched his mind for the information they needed. Fortunately, as the move of Sinister's base was relatively recent, the layout of the base and the security was easy to find. It was harder to find his security code, but Rogue eventually picked that up too.

While Rogue was conducting her search, Kitty caught glimpses of all the other memories Rogue absorbed in the process, what Rogue called "junk". It was a bizarre assortment of memories, and seemed to be random, for there was no discernible pattern. There was quite a lot of war memories, and Kitty shuddered not only at the imagery, but also at Victor's emotions. While the memories went by too fast for a true immersion, there was a few consistent, strong emotions; pain, lust, thrill. It sickened Kitty to think that someone could actually enjoy war.

There was something else as well that she saw often in these war memories; a familiar face that Kitty didn't think too much of at first, but when she saw it again and again in different wars, she realised she knew exactly why it was familiar: Logan. Kitty began to seek out more memories of Logan, not realising that her own search was affecting Rogue's search in the process:

_He faced off against Jimmy on the side of the road._

_"About time you got a hair cut, Sabretooth," Jimmy said in a growl._

_"What are you talking about, runt?" he replied. "I've have the same hair cut for years."_

_They clashed again; sweat, teeth, and claws. Wounds healed almost as soon as they were made. It had been a long time since he last had a good scuffle with his little brother._

_"Getting a little slow, aren't you?" he taunted Jimmy. "I think living at that school's made you soft."_

_Jimmy didn't reply. Onwards the fight went, spilling blood onto the ground, hair, prices of skin and flesh flying everywhere, both men growling like dogs at each other. Eventually, Jimmy pinned him onto the ground and pointed his claws at his neck._

_"Any last works before we find out if you can heal from having your throat slashed?" Jimmy asked._

_He grinned wickedly at Jimmy._

_"Happy birthday, Jimmy," he said._

Kitty wondered at Victor's familiarity with Logan. Could they really be brothers? Was 'Jimmy' Logan's real name? Certainly, she had the impression that it really was Logan's birthday that day.

_He watched as Jimmy cried out and ran towards Poppa with long claws sticking out of his hands. The claws stabbed into Poppa's chest. He froze, not even hearing Mistress Howlett scream._

_"He wasn't your father," Poppa said to Jimmy, "son."_

_He felt just that little bit smug as Jimmy pulled his claws out of Father and slowly backed off. He'd often suspected that Poppa and Mistress Howlett were—but as Jimmy ran off after a word from his mother, he ran after. Now that the bodies of both Father and Master Howlett were lying dead on the floor, he would be hunted. They would both be hunted; they were brothers—half brothers anyway. They should stick together._

While Kitty marvelled that Victor should have such a sense of family, she felt Rogue rail against her and the tone of memories being absorbed changed.

_"What the hell do you think you're doing, redirecting my search like that?"_ Rogue mentally screeched at her. _"I'd found what I needed and now I have to look for it all over again!"_

_"Oh, umm, sorry," _Kitty stammered. _"I didn't realise. But can you believe it? Logan is Victor's brother! And it really was his birthday that day he attacked him!"_

_"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can marvel over it later," _Rogue said. _"For now just don't think, okay? Every time you start focusing on something it redirects my search. I knew it! I knew we should have practised absorbing someone before doing this."_

Kitty blanched and did her best to avoid focusing on anything. It seemed to be quite some time before Rogue was able to locate anything on Sinister again.

_He smelt Dr Windsor coming down the hallway right on schedule, and he stepped out in front of him. Dr Windsor had a metal briefcase in one hand and didn't seem to be as startled as he would have expected after his sudden appearance._

_"Stealing more supplies, are we, doctor?" he asked._

_Dr Windsor smiled. "Looking forward to being replaced, Mr Creed? You are aware that's what Mr Stryker intends to do once his 'Weapon XI' is fully functional."_

_He growled and extended his claws. "Maybe if you hand the case over nicely, I'll break your neck instead of gutting you."_

_Dr Windsor laughed. He took that as a challenge and lunged at him, only to bounce right off. He crashed to the floor and stared up at Dr Windsor as he shifted into another man, one with pale skin and a diamond of red in his forehead. Dr Windsor took a card from his pocket._

_"I have what I need from this place," Dr Windsor said, patting the case. "Mr Stryker has no vision; no true appreciation of the future, or the real value of the mutants he has here. But I do. When Stryker has finished with you—or you have finished with him, give me a call."_

_Dr Windsor shifted back to his first form, and walked on by, dropping the card by his feet. He growled and got up to attack him again..._

Rogue finally located the intel she needed on Sinister's current base, a more difficult feat than usual because of Victor's sheer number of memories. There were times when Rogue thought she was going to get lost in Victor's head.

Finally, Rogue stopped the absorption and became aware of Victor's heavy body on top of her own. Kitty took the initiative, and pulled out her own psyche so she could use her phasing abilities to get out from underneath him. Once on their feet, they realised that they'd shifted back to Rogue's normal form, so Rogue shapeshifted again, this time to a brunette, and they left Victor's room. No one seemed to notice their departure, and as soon as they were out on the street, Rogue pulled out her phone and called Gambit.

"Gambit," he said upon answering the call.

"Hey sugah," Rogue replied as she walked down the street towards her hotel. "I have bad news, good news, bad news and good news."

"Well, at least it ends on a high note," Gambit said. "Lay it on me."

"The bad news is that I wasn't able to absorb Scalphunter. Apparently he was only drinking to brood," Rogue said. "The good news is that I was able to absorb another Marauder."

Gambit went cold. He had been watching the camera footage outside the bar—one they had hacked into rather than planted—and the only other Marauder he'd seen go in there was...

"Victor?"

"Uh huh," Rogue confirmed. "That's the bad news. The good news is that I have everything we were looking for. There's only security cameras at the entrance. All the other cameras are in the labs, and are meant for recording the progress of Sinister's experiments, not security, so the Marauders don't have access to that footage. Victor doesn't think that there's a camera in the nursery, but I couldn't confirm that. There are alarms in the first hallway, but I have Victor's security codes, so I can get past those. I'm headed back to the hotel now to write everything up."

"Good. Call me as soon as you've got everything ready. How long is Victor going to be out for?"

"Hard to give a definite, but that guy's got to have like, two hundred years worth of memories at least," Rogue replied. "Even with a slow drain it took ages to find everything. He's going to be out for at least twenty-four hours, probably longer. I'd be surprised if he woke up in less than forty-eight."

* * *

><p>Rogue called Gambit again a few hours later after she had typed up everything she had learned from Victor about Sinister's base, except for the floor plans, which she drew on paper and then photographed digitally (for lack of a scanner). She sent everything off to Gambit and then called him. He went through everything she sent him, and proceeded to question her about everything. There were a few occasions when Rogue had to pull Victor's psyche out to confirm a response, and she made a mental note to try and be a bit more thorough in the future.<p>

"All right, it seems that we've been given a window of opportunity here," Gambit said. "You said that Lady Mastermind and Riptide are off on some mission, right?"

"Yep."

"And we know that Vertigo, Blockbuster and Scalphunter are out, and Victor's incapacitated. That means only Scrambler, Harpoon, and Sinister himself are there. We're not going to get a better chance than this," Gambit said, all the while feeling like he should be the one doing the job, not Rogue. "Here's the plan; you get in there as Sabretooth and get me access to the computers. From there I'll create loops for the security cameras at the entrances while you go get Nate. On your way back, I'll switch the feed, and you get to leave without anyone seeing you taking Nate with you. I trust you can use Victor's senses to avoid bumping into anyone inside?"

"Yep," Rogue said.

"Assuming the conditions are right," Gambit said, "once outside, you should put Nate down, go back in, I'll switch the feed back to live, and that way the cameras can see Victor leaving. If it's not possible to leave Nate on his own for that long, we'll have to leave it, but I'd like to cover my bases a bit."

"Sure. Well, then, I shall get ready and I'll contact you shortly," Rogue said. "We should get started before Scalphunter, Vertigo, and Blockbuster return."

"Right."

_"Wow,"_ Kitty said as Rogue hung up. _"We're actually doing this? Tonight?"_

"Hey it's either that, or go back to New York to plot something else," Rogue said as she sorted through the equipment she needed to take with her. "Meanwhile, Victor'll wake up and be on the alert for my scent; the scent of a mutant who knocked him out. If he wakes up before my scent has had a chance to go stale, he'll likely track me here, from here he could probably figure out I came from New York. I'm pretty sure he's got more than enough brain cells in his head to guess that mutant, plus New York equals Xavier's School. He'll either hunt me down there, or he'll alert Sinister, and they'll either move again or set a trap. It's not just the best time to act, it may well be the only time to act."

* * *

><p>Rogue and Kitty, disguised as Victor, swaggered into the base as if they owned the place. The best part about utilising Mystique's gift for impersonation was that there was only one way to walk: Victor's way. They located an empty room with a computer, Rogue logged in and set up a remote connection for Gambit. While she did this, she spoke to Gambit through the ear piece she wore, and she kept her nose on alert for any of the other Marauders or Sinister. The last thing she wanted was for one of them to walk in on her on the computer; Victor just wasn't interested in computers.<p>

"Alright, I'm in," Gambit said, "and I'm recording the loops now."

"Okay," Rogue said. "Just setting up the computer so it doesn't look like it's been used and then I'll go."

"Good."

While Rogue did her thing, Gambit attempted to find out if he could get into the lab cameras as well. He could, and not long after Rogue set off for the nursery, he was able to report to her that there was no camera in there. He wasn't able to locate Scrambler, Harpoon or Sinister, but there weren't cameras in any of the bedrooms, and it wasn't unreasonable that they might simply be asleep. Rogue didn't encounter any of them, although she did hear snoring from Scrambler's room as she passed it with Victor's acute hearing.

Like in the previous base, the nursery was on the bottom floor, in the most secure part of the base. Before entering, Rogue changed shape from Victor to Madelyne, although she still kept Victor's psyche out and his senses on alert. She had no idea how Nate would respond to Victor, but she was pretty sure he'd be happy to see his mother.

As it turned out, Nate was fast asleep when Rogue finally entered the room. This nursery was also decorated with _Thomas the Tank Engine_ things, right down to the crib, which was built to look just like Thomas. In any case, at first glance around the room, it did look like Sinister was actually taking good care of young Nate, who was a couple of months shy of his third birthday by now.

Rogue looked in on Nate in the crib, and after a moment of hesitation, started going through drawers and such for gear. They hadn't anticipated rescuing Nate tonight, as as such had no clothes, food, or anything else prepared for him. In a low voice she reported back to Gambit that she found Nate and what she was doing. She only intended on grabbing a handful of things, as she wanted to make their escape quick and as with as little a burden as possible.

She only had time to grab one outfit and a couple of small containers of previously prepared food when Victor's senses told her there was someone approaching. She shut the cupboard, glanced around for a place to hide, and used Kitty's psyche to phase into the wardrobe. There was enough space for them to stand without being in phase, which they did as Victor's sense worked better if they weren't. They kept Kitty's psyche ready though, just in case they needed to phase into the wall.

Victor's senses told Rogue it was Sinister who opened up the nursery door. Rogue shut away Mystique's psyche and pulled out Gambit's. She charged up the empty coat hanger which recently held the little outfit Rogue had claimed, and held the charged object near the back of her head, hoping that the light wouldn't shine through the crack in the doorway. Gambit's powers made him difficult for any telepath to read, a charged object by his head made him virtually impossible to even be detected. Rogue hoped it would be enough to prevent Sinister from sensing four sets of thought patterns coming from the wardrobe; five, if they counted both Kittys.

Then Sinister's hand fell on the wardrobe door. Rogue only had moments to retract the charge and phase into the wall, but she took just a moment too long making sure the charge was gone before phasing into the wall (not wanting what happened to Kitty's original body to happen to hers). She didn't have a chance to completely submerge into the wall before Sinister opened the door and saw her.

There was nothing else for it; Rogue phased completely into the wall, let Kitty take control, and ran around to the other side of the room. Kitty phased out through the wall back into the room right by Nate's side. She picked up the sleeping toddler in a rush and started to run for the door, but Nate—upset from having his sleep so rudely interrupted—was yanked from her hands by an unseen force. Kitty turned to see Nate floating into Sinister's hold.

_"What have we here?"_ asked Sinister as his mind intruded upon Rogue's head.

Having no intentions whatsoever of allowing Sinister to access her mind, let alone get any information from her, Rogue's knee-jerk reaction was to let her psyches out.

All of them.

All ability to hear anything, from her own thoughts to Nate's wails, was completely gone. Neither Rogue, nor Kitty could hear a single thing, not even each other. The vast amount of noise her psyches created was so loud it rendered everything silent. Sinister clamped his hands over his ears and fell to his knees, letting go of Nate in the process. Rogue and Kitty snatched Nate up; neither one could ever say afterwards who was in control at that moment, it was like all of those sessions of Tai Chi with Logan kicked in and they moved as one.

Rogue and Kitty turned and made for the door, Nate in their arms. Knowing that Gambit would have no idea what was going on, she spoke fast: "Sinister caught us we're running for it."

She had no way of knowing how loud she was speaking, no way to tell if it was normal volume, shouting or whispering. She started to shut away a good proportion of her psyches; she left out the mutants in case she needed to use their abilities at a moment's notice, and she left out the quietest ones in the hopes that they might help to hinder any further attempts by Sinister to use his telepathy on her. It was still noisy, but she could actually make out Nate's sobs through the ringing in her ears.

Then Scrambler stepped out of his room and Kitty phased before he had a chance to touch her. They ran right through Scrambler and continued down the hallway.

_"Harpoon!"_ Kitty exclaimed as soon as the other Marauder stepped into view.

Kitty's panic froze her; she remembered all too well what had happened the last time she encountered Harpoon. Fortunately, it didn't freeze Rogue. Rogue stuffed Kitty's psyche back in her box, figuring now that she had two healing factors in her inventory, she could survive an impaling a lot better than she would survive being disintegrated.

Not that she planned on letting him do either.

As Harpoon hefted his harpoon, Rogue turned into ice. The harpoon missed and Rogue kept on running. She smirked at him as she closed the distance. Harpoon attempted to stop her using another charged harpoon as a melee weapon, but Rogue simply split her body up the middle, leaving only her head intact, and ran over him, keeping Nate out of harm's way. As soon as she had passed, she sealed her body back up again and pelted up the stairs. They had used the elevator on the way down, but they didn't have time to wait for it now, even using Magneto's powers to speed up the process.

_"I had no idea Bobby could do that," _Kitty exclaimed.

_"Neither does Bobby,"_ Rogue replied.

It was no easy feat running up the stairs with a toddler in her arms. Rogue reached out with Magneto's powers to grab hold of the elevator; there were multiple elevators, but none that went every floor, and each elevator was a hallway apart. The elevator that Rogue grabbed would take her up two floors, and she would still have another two to go before she was at the top. As soon she they got off the stairs, they ran for the elevator which Rogue held at their floor. They ran inside, and Rogue used Magneto's powers again to speed the elevator's journey to the highest floor that it went. While they waited, Rogue and Kitty had a brief moment to catch their breath.

Nate was struggling. He wriggled in their arms, determined to be released. He didn't like being suddenly woken up and he definitely didn't like all this running around. Especially not in the arms of a strange woman, for in all the fuss Rogue had been forced to release Madelyne's form. Rogue hated to do this, but when the doors of the elevator opened and she almost ended up dropping him, she accessed Mesmero's powers and touched Nate's mind.

"Sleep," she said simply, and Nate did so.

Rogue and Kitty went back to running. They had to get down to either the stairs or the other elevator, and Rogue reached out with Magneto's powers to attempt to grab the elevator that she needed; that would be faster if she could get it in time.

Abruptly a wall opened beside them and Rogue discovered what she had been too busy to notice earlier; there was another elevator, one that did in fact go all the floors, and judging from the fact that there was no discernible door leading to it, it was a secret elevator known only to the man stepping out from it: Sinister.

"I'll take that," Sinister said.

The moment Sinister snatched Nate from Rogue and Kitty's arms, was the same moment that Rogue and Kitty ran straight into Sinister. There had simply been no room nor time to dodge, but for one moment there was a single chance they could still escape with Nate. The only skin that Sinister had revealing was above his head, and all Rogue had to do was turn her head just a fraction. Her lips met his and her powers kicked in.

The only thing Rogue wanted to do at that moment was knock Sinister out, so the absorption was hard and fast. Unfortunately, Rogue's plan didn't work quite the way she thought.

_"Foolish girl," _Sinister's voice said inside her head. _"I have been dominating minds far stronger than yours for longer than you've even been alive."_

It was Rogue's worst nightmare come to life. The absorption was cut off, but not by her doing. Her other psyches were put away, again, not by her hand. While Sinister's body fell to the floor, hers rose and Rogue felt like nothing more than a passenger in her own body. It was worse than when Kitty took control. Together Rogue and Kitty fought against Sinister's psyche, attempting to find the core and stuff him in a box so they could get going, but even with two of them it wasn't enough, Sinister merely laughed at their pathetic attempt to curb him, and began striding to the appropriate lab.

Scrambler and Harpoon caught up with them then, and Sinister informed them telepathically of the situation. He crushed Rogue's earpiece in his hand before continuing out loud.

"Harpoon, please get Nate back down to the nursery," Sinister ordered him. "Leave my body where it is, I shall wake in about fifteen minutes. When I do, make sure you let me know that the intruder is in the lab. Scrambler, I shall need your assistance strapping this body down on the table; I will not be able to lock her in place properly if my powers are in the process of being shut off."

"Yes sir," Scrambler replied.

Try as they might, Rogue and Kitty couldn't release themselves from Sinister's hold. They were forced to watch in grim horror as Sinister calmly walked them to an examination table and Scrambler strapped him in. It was only when Rogue's powers had been shut off that Sinister's voice finally vanished.

_"Well, at least he's gone now," _Kitty said.

_"I'm not sure that's actually a good thing," _Rogue said cautiously. _"We never shut him in a box before my powers got turned off. So, when they come back on again, he'll be loose."_

_"Damn," _Kitty said. _"I didn't consider... oh no."_

_"Those are not words I care to hear right now."_

_"Rogue, we're counting on your mutation to keep our personalities separate, but it's not active now," _Kitty said urgently. _"Didn't Betsy say that the first phase of merging begins within twenty-four hours? You know, for coordination purposes."_

_"She never had trouble walking," _Rogue said slowly, remembering.

_"I hope someone comes for us soon," _Kitty said._ "Else we might end up inseparable."_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Gambit cursed the fact that there were no security cameras in the hallway. He hated being blind to what was happening. It was only when he saw Scrambler and Rogue walking into one of the labs that he found out what was going on. Scrambler left not long after Rogue was strapped in, and it was then that Rogue and Kitty began to talk aloud.

_"Well, this is a fine mess you've gotten us into," said Rogue. "Let's save the boy, you said. We'll be in and out before anyone knows we're there, you said."_

_"Hey," Kitty said defensively, "it was a perfectly good plan. How was I supposed to know that Sinister would wake up and walk in on us?"_

Gambit raised an eyebrow as he listened. At the same time, he picked up his phone and rang Storm's number.

_"Hello! It's freaking Sinister!" Rogue exclaimed. "We never should have come here. Besides, the kid was fine."_

"Remy," Storm's voice said on the other line, "it's three in the morning—"

_"The kid was not fine," Kitty objected._

"And you're in bed already?" Gambit asked blandly before hurrying on; "no time for chit-chat chère. I need you, Logan, and Hank."

_"And now thanks to you, I have that psychopath in my head," said Rogue._

"And probably Scott and Madelyne as well," Gambit said as an afterthought. "It concerns Nate, Rogue, and Kitty, and yes, it's very important."

_"That was so totally not my fault," Kitty said. "You're the one that kissed him."_

"All right, we'll be there shortly," Storm said, and hung up.

_"Only because we had no choice! Who puts an elevator right there anyway?" Rogue grumbled._

Gambit put his phone back down.

_"Yeah, well, all I'm saying is that if you didn't absorb the guy, then he wouldn't have been able to walk us in here with us as passengers in our own body!" Kitty exclaimed._

_"I was trying to knock him out! He'd just taken Nate from us with that damn telekinesis or whatever it is that he has," Rogue replied hotly._

Gambit listened intently to Rogue and Kitty's 'argument', somewhat pleased they'd found a way to communicate without being too obvious about it. After all, the Marauders couldn't access the lab cameras, so why would they think anyone was watching them there? What's more, Gambit could see that the ear piece was missing, so as far as Scrambler and Harpoon knew, Rogue and Kitty couldn't communicate with the outside world at all. The only one in a position to determine otherwise had just been absorbed, although Gambit couldn't assume he'd be knocked out for very long.

The door opened, and the requested people entered, everyone tired except for Hank, who had likely been having a late night of his own.

"About time," Gambit said, standing up but keeping his eyes on the screen. "Hank, Madelyne, I need you deux to keep an eye on the cameras. Let us know immediately if Vertigo, Blockbuster, or Scalphunter leave these buildings."

He pointed to the required screens.

"What's this all about, Cajun?" Logan demanded.

"In short; Rogue made an attempt to rescue Nate tonight. She just got caught. If we leave _right now_ we may still have a chance to rescue all three of them before they have a chance to leave or set up a trap, and hopefully we can even get there before the other Marauders are recalled," Gambit said, grabbing his trench coat off a nearby chair, and then pointing to another camera. "That's the lab Rogue and Kitty are in. They've been pretending to argue to pass on information about what happened."

"Understood," Hank said.

Gambit leaned over the playpen to give Olivier—who was fast asleep—a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Be back soon," he said softly, then lifted his head and noted everyone still standing there. "Okay, let's go already. Time is of the essence and all that. We don't do this now, we have to start all over again."

* * *

><p>Gambit gave everyone the full version on the Blackbird. He told them about how Rogue had absorbed Victor, and that they expected him to be unconscious for at least two days. He told them about how they decided to take advantage of the low population at Sinister's base and that Rogue had gotten caught after picking up Nate.<p>

After quickly conferring with Hank, it was decided that he would switch the security footage feed with the loops that Gambit had created earlier when they were ready to enter the base.

"This is the plan. I go in alone," Gambit began, noted the expression on Scott's face, and elaborated, "because I'm difficult for telepaths to read. I can also make myself impossible even for high level telepaths to detect. Can anyone else here say the same?"

No one replied.

"Didn't think so," Gambit said, and continued on; "I also know the exact kind of people that Sinister likes to recruit. I can and have held my own against one in a fight, if it comes to that, although I'd really like to pull this off without it. Now, I'll get inside and scout ahead. Nate's probably back in the nursery, which is on the bottom floor, so I'll release Rogue first—"

"Of course you will—" Scott said cynically.

"And go after Nate," Gambit went on as if Scott hadn't said anything. "You guys are my backup and look out. Alert me immediately if the other Marauders show up. If it is at all possible for you to prevent them from getting to the base, do it. If one of them gets in, again, alert me immediately. I will do my best to keep you guys up to date while I'm inside, but I am trying to do this by stealth as much as possible, so I will be keeping the noise down."

"Sinister just entered the lab where Rogue and Kitty are being held," Hank announced through the comm system.

"Can you patch it through?" asked Storm from the pilot's chair.

"Yes, just a moment..."

* * *

><p>The lab door opened and Sinister entered the room. His eyes were trained on Rogue and Kitty. He wasn't entirely clear on what just happened; he'd woken up in the hallway with a headache of all things and some crazy message from Scrambler about taking over the girl's body and walking her into the lab. He couldn't remember doing any such thing.<p>

"Curious," Sinister said as he walked over to them. "You have two different thought patterns."

"You might say I have multiple personalities," Rogue replied, only half joking.

Sinister didn't reply, instead he began to probe her head. Having some familiarity with reading minds, and denied the protection that her psyches availed her, Rogue began to sing:

I know a song that'll get on your nerves,  
>Get on your nerves,<br>Get on your nerves,  
>I know a song that'll get on your nerves,<br>And it goes like this,"

Kitty figured it out quickly and joined in:

"I know a song that'll get on your nerves,  
>Get on your nerves,<br>Get on your nerves,  
>I know a song that'll get on your nerves,<br>And it goes like this,"

Sinister was undeterred. Rogue unwillingly cried out in pain as Sinister forcibly pierced her mind. Kitty kept on singing, her mind remaining unscathed. Despite the fact that it hurt more to struggle, Rogue continued to fight Sinister and protect that which was of the most value to her; things and people she dared not think of lest it make it easier for Sinister to learn about them. She tried to get back into singing, and to pull up the memories of the days of learning and singing that very song just to bug people.

_"Fascinating_," Sinister mused as he poked through Rogue's mind with complete disregard for her wellbeing. "_You actually collect mutant abilities. Oh do be quiet."_

He purposely jabbed at Rogue's mind, making her cry out once more, and throwing her off singing again. Kitty figured that Rogue wouldn't have started if she didn't think it would help, and encouraged by Sinister's irritation, she sang louder. Sinister took to the stronghold Rogue attempted to build like a moth to a flame. Rogue made a last ditch effort to protect all that was sacred to her but it simply wasn't enough.

_"So you're Remy LeBeau's wife,"_ Sinister said as he went through her memories, _"and you have a son! Well, now, he may be well worth keeping an eye on."_

Rogue thought that she had been fighting against him with everything she had, right up until that moment. A store of strength within her she didn't know she had opened up with the threat to her son and she screamed both mentally and verbally:

"GET OUT!"

Sinister recoiled both mentally and physically. For a moment he just stared at her, then he cleared his throat.

"Subject number to be determined is capable of accumulating mutant abilities through physical contact," Sinister said to the room, presumably to have his verbal notes recorded. "Acquisition and utilisation is clumsy, but has potential. Subject also acquires the personalities of people she touches; a largely unnecessary ability akin to a 'poor man's telepathy'."

Rogue bristled at that, but was still more angry with the implied threat to her son.

"Subject has demonstrated crude but partially effective defences against psionic intrusion," Sinister went on, oblivious to Rogue's reaction. "Subject also has a second personality which appears to be the result of external influence. Further investigation is required. Studies will resume..." Sinister glanced at the clock, "at a more appropriate hour."

Sinister departed, and the singing finally stopped.

"Wow Rogue," Kitty said as soon as Sinister left the room. "That was awesome. You totally went mama bear on his ass."

"Heh, yeah," Rogue replied awkwardly. "I guess I did."

* * *

><p>As Gambit slipped into Sinister's base, he couldn't help but berate himself for not going into the base instead of sending Rogue. He thought it would be okay; Rogue had all the intel in her head; she probably knew the base better than he did, and there were relatively few people at the base. Besides, he was supposed to be retired, and Rogue was supposed to be training. It made sense.<p>

Gambit wished he'd listened to his gut. He always regretted it when he didn't. It had been so easy to write off what he had been feeling as the longing to get back into the field again after a year's forced retirement.

He used Victor's security codes to get into the base after Hank switched the feed so he wouldn't be seen. The corridor was long and wide, and there simply wasn't anywhere to hide should someone step out of one of the many doors along the hallway. A hair clip shone with magenta light from his head. Sure, Logan felt the need to snicker while Scott informed him that if he bothered to get a hair cut, he wouldn't need a hair clip. They had both looking dubious then Gambit informed them that the hair clip would allow him to get inside undetected by Sinister's telepathy, but Gambit didn't really care if they believed him or not.

Gambit located the stairs and made his way down as quietly as a cat. During the course of her 'arguing' with Kitty, Rogue had said something about being buried four levels underground, so he went down four levels. When he got there, he simply said "floor".

"Labs are still all clear," Hank reported. "Looping lab footage now."

Using a mirror, Gambit carefully peered into the hallway, making sure it was clear. When he was satisfied there was no one there, he stepped into the hall and took in the half a dozen doors along the long hallway. At least he didn't need to worry about Sinister seeing him check the rooms. According to the floor plans Rogue drew up only hours ago, there were only labs on this floor, so there shouldn't be anyone in any of the rooms. Still, Gambit was cautious about checking each room.

Rogue and Kitty were in the fifth room. Rogue's eyes lit up as soon as she saw him enter.

"Hey Roguey," Gambit said, walking over to her with a pleased smile on his face. "Hank's got the feed looped, we can talk freely."

"That's good," Rogue said as Gambit began inspecting the locks binding her in place, "because you can't let me out."

Gambit raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "What are you talking about?"

"I absorbed Sinister," Rogue said. "His psyche was too strong for me and he took over..."

Rogue swallowed hard and Gambit fancied he actually saw her transition into Kitty.

"Rogue's powers are shut off at the moment, but we think when they come back, Sinister's psyche is still going to be out and about, and he'll take us over again," Kitty said. "You have to get Nate first, and you can't release us until after you've depowered or otherwise knocked us out, and keep us knocked out until we get to the mansion, and we can come to or be repowered under controlled conditions. Maybe Betsy will be able to help, we don't know."

Gambit looked pained, but nodded. He started looking around the lab.

"Sorry, sugah," Rogue said.

"No need to apologise, chère. These things happen," Gambit said as he looked through a drawer. "Are you okay? I know that Sinister, uhh, checked on you before we got here."

"I'm okay. Pissed off, but okay," Rogue said. "He knows about you. He seemed interested that we were married and he decided he wanted to keep an eye on our son. If he wasn't a mad scientist, I'd have a few unsavoury suspicions about his interests in baby boys."

"You totally should have seen Rogue," Kitty piped up then. "As soon as he so much as hinted a threat towards Olivier, Rogue blasted him. She totally went mama bear on his ass and threw him out of her head. It was awesome. Scary, but awesome."

"Mama bear, eh chère?" Gambit asked with a grin towards her.

"No one even gets to think about hurting Oli and gets away with it," Rogue replied stubbornly.

"I agree completely," Gambit said, lifting up a small bottle. He read off the label and asked Hank if that would be appropriate to use on Rogue to knock her out. After checking dosage and time, Gambit organised for Logan and Scott to pick Rogue up after he injected her.

"Make sure she's unconscious before you release her," Gambit told them. "The way is clear. I'll go on ahead and get Nate."

He filled up the syringe with the appropriate amount and turned to Rogue unhappily.

"I love you, chère," he said softly. "I'll see you back at the mansion."

Rogue nodded. "I love you too. Good luck."

Gambit kissed her lips gently, and then injected her with the sedative.

* * *

><p>Logan and Scott were both just that little bit disappointed about the way being clear. The sedative appeared to have kicked in by the time they got to her, but they gave it a few more minutes just to be certain that Sinister's psyche wouldn't give them any trouble. Logan took to the locks with his claws, and then picked her up.<p>

"Don't worry darlin'," he said to Rogue, regardless of the fact that she was unconscious. "We're gonna take care of you."

As they headed back to the surface, Scott got more and more anxious about the whole thing. Once back at the top, with the way to the Blackbird in sight, he held back. He let Logan go on ahead, and then quickly ran back inside again, taking to the stairs. He had to find his son.

* * *

><p>Gambit stopped outside the door which led to the nursery. He had a wrenching in his gut that he shouldn't just walk in there, that there was something he was missing. And after the mess they'd gotten into when he didn't listen to his gut before, he wasn't going to make the same mistake again.<p>

He thought hard, always keeping up the charged hair clip. It was especially important here when Sinister was so close. According to the floor plans, his room was just next door. The thought made Gambit frown; didn't Rogue just say that Sinister found out about him and Olivier when he went into her head? A cold certainty swept upon him; this was a trap. In all likelihood, Sinister, and possibly one or both of the Marauders were in the nursery right now, just waiting for him to open the door.

Gambit pulled out his listening device and place it very, very gently against the door, determined not to make a sound. He was certain Sinister could sit there in silence, but he wasn't so sure that Scrambler or Harpoon would be able to just sit there quietly. For that matter, what Nate was doing was important too. Gambit was quite prepared to stand there with his ear to the door for as long as it took to hear something—anything! The scuffling of a shoe, a sneeze, a yawn, the shifting of legs. While he listened, he tried to think of ways he could see inside the room without drawing attention.

Or perhaps that was exactly what he should do.

The question was, which did Sinister value more? Nate, or the rest of his research? If he created a distraction, say, the destruction of said research, he would at the very least send his Marauders to deal with it. Of course, that would create further problems of their own, and assuming that Sinister valued Nate more, he would likely stay with him, probably expecting the distraction to be a distraction.

So what if he created a distraction for the distraction?

Gambit stifled a sigh, this was ridiculous. He had to find a way to steal a toddler (who would likely make a noise the minute his sleep was disturbed) from one to three grown men who were watching him right now. A part of him toyed with the idea of forgetting this subtle approach and just blowing a wall in, but he didn't know exactly where in the nursery Nate was, and wouldn't risk hurting him.

"Remy," Storm's voice said in his ear. "We have Rogue, but Scott's gone back inside. No sign of any of the Marauders."

Gambit cursed inwardly and tapped the microphone—the only acknowledgement he was able to give at that moment. Why couldn't Scott just leave well enough alone, and let him do his... Wait...maybe he could work with this after all.

Gambit made his way over to the door that lead to Sinister's bedroom, and as timing would have it, he stepped inside just moments before Scott saw him. Just as Gambit closed the door behind him, he wondered for a fleeting moment if he had thought about things too much, and if Sinister was in bed after all, but as Gambit took in the luxurious Victorian style bedroom, it was clear that Sinister was not in there.

He heard Scott try the door of the nursery, and then felt a note of satisfaction as he heard the sounds of a fight breaking out. Just one Marauder, Gambit figured. He walked to the adjoining wall and pressed his listening device up against it. A grim smile appeared on his lips as he heard Nate's loud objections to being woken up again. It was hard to be absolute certain where Nate was, but Gambit was reasonably sure it wasn't against the adjoining wall. He knelt down and touched the wall.

"Stormy, I need a distraction," Gambit said in a low voice, confident that he wouldn't be overheard with all the fighting going on. "Anything. Just don't get caught."

"Will do," Storm replied. "And don't call me Stormy."

Gambit grinned to himself. He charged up a thin layer of the wall and let it explode, then charged up another layer, and another, in rapid succession. It was a slower way of going about it, but quieter, and he had pulled this trick off often enough that he's gotten rather good at making sense of what was on the other side before his man-sized hole went all the way through.

When the remaining wall was thin enough, Gambit was able to feel what was on the other side. Some big piece of furniture was partially blocking his hole, so he started breaking down the wall on the other side. As the wall grew thinner, he could make better sense of the shapes on the other side. There were pieces of furniture on either side, and judging from the movement of shadows and the noise, Gambit figured the fight was more in the hallway than the nursery now. He blew up the final layer of the wall, which drifted to the ground in a puff of dust and climbed through.

"We meet again, Mr LeBeau," Sinister said, watching him as he climbed through the hole in full view.

It did not surprise him that Sinister was there, watching, waiting; he'd have been foolish not to expect that. What did surprise was Sinister's use of the word 'again'.

"Désolé monsieur," Gambit replied, as he brushed off the dust that had fallen onto his coat and deactivated the charged hair clip. "But I think you are mistaken. I don't believe we've met."

Nate's crib was about four feet away from Sinister. Sitting beside it was a baby monitor.

"On the contrary, we met many years ago. Ahh, but perhaps you'd remember me best in this form," Sinister said, and changed shape.

The colour drained from Gambit's face as he took in the man standing before him: Dr Windsor. The man who had conducted brain surgery and many other excruciating experiments on him when he'd been but a teenager, held in Stryker's base on Three Mile Island.

"You," Gambit said, his voice thick with venom.

It had never even occurred to him that Sinister might have worked for Stryker, but now that the man stood before him, Gambit wondered why he hadn't even entertained the idea before. Out of the corner of his eye, Gambit saw Scott and Scramble engaged in a fierce hand to hand battle.

"Ahh, so you do remember," Sinister said, changing back to his true form. "Good. I would hate to think you'd forgotten all the fine work we did together."

"Fine work? Fine work!" Gambit spluttered, watching Nate throw a tantrum out of the corner of his other eye. "You cut my skull open and performed brain surgery on me while I was still conscious!"

"Yes, the others wanted to sedate you, said it was inhumane or some such," Sinister replied with a shrug. "But if I had done it their way they would have succeeded in shutting off your powers completely and rendered you a vegetable for the rest of your life."

"What, you want a thank you? You expect me to be grateful?" Gambit scoffed, slowly edging over to Nate as discreetly as he could, knowing that Sinister expected him to approach Nate. "You did what you did for your own benefit, not mine. Although why someone who apparently wants to create the ultimate mutant would depower a class five is beyond me."

Sinister's smile matched his name.

"I still have that piece of your brain I removed," Sinister told Gambit. "I can put it back if you want."

"You must think I'm a fool if you believe I would agree to that," Gambit replied. "Even if I thought that piece was still functional after all this time, I'll never go under your knife again."

"Rest assured it is perfectly preserved," Sinister said, keeping his eyes trained on Gambit and seemingly oblivious to Scott and Scrambler's fight, or Nate's tired and angry shrieks.

"I'm just so happy that you have a trophy," Gambit retorted sarcastically. "Do you take them from all your subjects, or is it just me?"

"And since when did you start in on 'hero' business?" Sinister asked smoothly. "I thought you were the new Patriarch of the Thieves Guild. I would have thought you had better things to do than to rescue small children."

"Funny, I thought you preferred experimenting on mutants who had already manifested," Gambit said and gestured around the room, "or are you fulfilling some paternal desire you didn't know you had? You know, most people try to become a parent the conventional way; this involves this thing, I don't know if you're familiar with it, it's called 'sexual intercourse'. Of course, first you have to find a woman interested in hopping into bed with you... You know, I think I understand why you had to resort to kidnapping."

Before Sinister could reply, there was the sound of an electrical surge, the lights flickered, and then went out completely. Gambit knew that must be Storm's distraction, and not the slightest bit disadvantaged by the sudden dark, Gambit grabbed Nate. While the toddler whimpered for Mommy, Gambit ducked back through the hole he made in the wall and zipped through Sinister's bedroom door. He pulled out his contractable staff, extended it, and beat down Scrambler from behind.

Scott wasn't badly disadvantaged by the lack of light, as he had learned to blind fight many years ago. When he heard Nate coming closer, he shifted out of fight mode and started towards the sound.

"Nate? Nate, it's me, Daddy..."

"Here," Gambit said hurriedly, pressing Nate into his father's arms. "Quick."

He kept one hand on Scott to guide him, giving quick instructions as required, such as 'stairs'. He knew it wouldn't be long before Sinister at the very least came after them, and Gambit had no idea how well Sinister would function in the dark. Scott continued to talk to Nate, even as he ran up the stairs alongside Gambit, in an attempt to soothe and reassure him. The noise irritated Gambit, but he realised that it was unavoidable and in any case, being a telepath, Sinister could sense Scott and Nate's minds anyway.

That was the one thing that was making Gambit nervous. He knew they had a head start on Scrambler, but Sinister had that secret elevator that Rogue mentioned; Gambit had no idea where it was supposed to be, and with telekinesis, Sinister didn't need electricity in order to use it. Plus there was no telling where Harpoon had gotten to.

A few steps short of the top floor, after a long and exhausting run during which Nate switched between Gambit and Scott a few times, Gambit stopped Scott and walked up the last few steps himself to check that the coast was clear. Knowing that his red eyes may just give him away, especially in the dark, Gambit used a mirror to check the hallway. The hallway was dark everywhere, except for two red eyes. Gambit's first reaction to the eyes in the mirror were that they were his own, but no, they belonged to Sinister.

Gambit moved quietly back down to Scott and Nate, and pulled out a couple of playing cards. He held them behind Scott's head and charged them up. Magenta light flickered on the walls.

"When you get to the top of the stairs, turn left and run for the exit," Gambit informed him in a low tone. "Do not wait for me."

"Understood," Scott replied quietly.

The men walked to the top of the stairs. As Scott bolted to the exit with Nate in his arms, Gambit turned to face Sinister and threw the charged cards at him. He ran backwards a few steps and threw some more. Sinister deflected all the cards, and they blew chunks out of the walls instead. One card got through on Gambit's backwards run to the exit, which caused Sinister pause as he reformed himself.

There was a cry of pain and anguish from the exit. Gambit threw a few more cards for good measure, then turned and ran for the exit. Harpoon must be there. They were so close to getting out of here; he was not going to let them fail at the last moment.

As it turned out, Gambit need not have worried. As he passed through the doors, he could see Scott running for the Blackbird, and Logan finishing off gutting Harpoon. Logan looked at Gambit as he ran through, additional cards ready. No words were required between them, they just ran after Scott and followed him up the ramp to the Blackbird.

As soon as Storm had seen that everyone was back on board, she raised the ramp and lifted off. Scott put Nate down in one of the seats in the back and practically collapsed next to him. Gambit sprawled out on his chair and concentrated on getting his breath back.

"Just...how many...flights of stairs...was that?" Scott asked.

"I lost count," Gambit replied.

"I am just...not as fit...as I used to be," Scott said.

Gambit gave a breathy laugh.

"By the way," Gambit said, a sly smirk on his face, "merci for springing the trap for me."

"Come again?"

"I knew Sinister and probably at least one of the Marauders were in the nursery," Gambit replied. "So, I really appreciate you distracting Scrambler for me. It was most helpful."

"You knew it was a trap?" Scott demanded, giving Gambit a hard look.

"Oui."

"And you didn't warn me?"

"I thought that was obvious."

"Well, I am just pleased that we managed to rescue Nate and get aware unharmed," Storm said, paused and added thoughtfully: "Most of us."

Gambit turned his head towards Rogue, strapped into her seat and unconscious.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN:**

And forgot to mention last chapter that the thing about Gambit charging something by his head to make him undetectable to even high level mutants actually comes from the comics. He did it in Gambit (series 3) #8

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 10<strong>

Just before midday the following day, many hours after Madelyne's heartfelt reunion with Nate, Rogue awoke in the medlab, as did Kitty, and worst of all; Sinister's psyche. Rogue had been quite right to be concerned about him being out of his box still, for even with the sedative still wearing off his mind was as strong as ever. As soon as the women came to, they found themselves having to fight for control again as Sinister's mind overwhelmed them.

"They're awake," Psylocke reported to Gambit and Hank.

Gambit lifted himself up and leaned over the bed to make eye contact with Rogue.

"Hey chère," he said softly. "You okay in there?"

"Your wife is fine," said Sinister and Gambit recoiled, standing up straight. "She and that other personality, Kitty, are a little busy at the moment though."

Gambit whirled on Psylocke: "You're the telepath, do something!"

"Love to," Psylocke replied. "Unfortunately, Sinister is one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet, and I'm nowhere near his league. Even partially sedated, I can't do anything more than confirm which personality is in control."

"And partially sedated she...he...they will remain," Hank said firmly. "It's the only way to restore Rogue's powers enough to deal with the problem without giving Sinister full access to all the powers at his disposal."

"I don't need full access, I only need enough access," Sinister replied, noting that in addition to the sedative, he was also strapped down. "Sooner or later, Rogue and Kitty will tire and I will be able to escape from these petty bonds. "

"To what end?" Gambit asked him coldly. "By now Sinister—the real Sinister—will have moved, or at the very least, be in the progress of moving bases. Do you know where that would even be? You're only a poor shadow of the real man. A copy of a few pages out of a full length book."

"Don't worry so much, Remy," Sinister responded with a cynical, sleepy smile. "I know how to contact myself, and when I do, I think I shall start by making a few clones. I can think of all sorts of experiments I'd like to try... Perhaps we can come to some sort of arrangement?"

"Sure," Gambit said with a dangerous tone. "We can come to an arrangement. Release my wife."

"And?"

"And nothing. Release my wife."

"That's very one-sided, not to mention short-sighted," Sinister replied.

"You're just a pathetic copy of the real Sinister," Gambit said darkly. "Even if you should escape, it won't be you conducting the experiments; it'll be the real Sinister. You're nothing."

"Inconsequential," Sinister replied in dismissal.

Gambit held out a card and charged it. "Release Rogue and Kitty. Let my wife shut up your pathetic psyche into one of her boxes, or I will blow your head off."

Psylocke gasped behind him.

"Remy..." Hank said cautiously.

"You wouldn't dare," Sinister said, staring up at Gambit with cold green eyes. "You wouldn't hurt Rogue."

"But you will. Imagine my quandary. I know right now that you having control over Rogue's body is torturing her. I know right now that worse is yet to come if you do succeed in getting her body back to Sinister," Gambit said, and he placed the charged card by Rogue's neck. "I love Rogue. She is truly my other half, and I can't bear the thought of living the rest of my life without her. I would sacrifice anything to save her...even if that meant killing her to save her from you."

There was a long, drawn out silence where no one was willing to say a word. Gambit and Sinister just stared at each other, eyes locked. Finally the expression on Rogue's face changed from cold and hard, to scared and relieved.

"Remy," Rogue said, sounding upset, but every much like herself.

Hank glanced at Psylocke, who nodded.

"It's definitely Rogue. I can no longer sense Sinister's thought patterns," Psylocke announced.

"He's in a box," Rogue said, sounding very much like she was going to cry as Gambit doused the charged card and wrapped his arms around her. "Not just any box. It's adamantium, and we've got it locked down with half a dozen different locks and thrown away all the keys."

Gambit kissed her forehead and held her tight. "Good to know."

Despite herself, Rogue began to weep as Hank removed the drip that was keeping the sedative in her system, and Psylocke took the liberty of undoing the straps. Once her arms and upper body was free, Rogue wrapped her arms around Gambit in turn, and his hold helped her to sit up. As Gambit comforted her, Hank and Psylocke discreetly left them alone.

When at last Rogue had her fill of crying, she clung to Gambit for just a little longer, and then finally let go. Gambit brushed the hair out of her face and then grabbed a nearby tissue to dry her cheeks.

"Feeling better?" he asked her gently.

"A little. I think I'm still a big groggy from the sedative," Rogue said, laying back down on the bed. "Can I say that was the worst thing to ever happen to me? Even worse than being shot last year?"

_"You were shot last year?" _Kitty asked.

_"Not now,"_ Rogue replied.

"I'd believe it," Gambit replied, oblivious to her conversation with Kitty. "I'm just glad you're okay now. And you're sure he's stashed away for good?"

"When the sedative wears off completely, I'm going to reinforce the box just to be sure," Rogue replied, paused and then asked hesitantly: "Would you have actually gone through with it?"

She didn't know why she asked. She wasn't even sure she wanted to know his answer.

"I was gambling I wouldn't have to make that decision," Gambit replied, setting the soggy tissue aside on the table.

"And if he has called your bluff?" Rogue asked, again wondering why she was pursuing the subject.

Gambit was quiet for a long moment. The truth was he didn't know himself what he would have done. It was all bravado.

"Does it matter?" he asked finally. "Either way I would have regretted it. Either way I would have lost you. I can't, chère. I can't lose you."

Rogue lifted her hand and stroked his face. "I can't lose you either."

* * *

><p>Later that afternoon, Storm looked up as Scott, Madelyne, and Nate entered her office. She set the papers she was working on aside while her visitors sat down.<p>

"Now's not a bad time?" Scott asked.

"Not at all," Storm replied warmly. "How can I help you?"

"We wanted to talk to you about joining the X-men and moving here permanently," Scott said. "Right now we have no reason to believe that Sinister won't try to take Nate again, and we think he would be safer here. I realise that may put your students in further danger, should the Marauders ever decide to attack."

"We have already been attacked by Stryker and by Sentinels," Storm replied, with a dismissing wave of her hand. "The Professor wanted this place to be a sanctuary for all mutants in need, and that includes you. Of course you may stay."

* * *

><p>After her meeting with Scott and Madelyne, Storm made her way to the surveillance room which Gambit was in the process of packing up.<p>

"Hey Stormy," he said upon her arrival.

"Hi," she replied. "I was wondering if I could have a word with you about extending your contract?"

Gambit frowned and lifted his head to look at her while his hands busied themselves sealing up the box.

"Extend it how?" he asked. "We have Nate and I really have to get back to New Orleans. As much as I hate the idea of being Patriarch, that is what I am now, and I have responsibilities I have to get back to, like 'em or not."

"It's true that we have Nate," Storm replied with a nod as she walked over to him. "And he and his parents will be staying with us. But there is nothing to say that Sinister won't try to take him back. We did update the system not that long ago, but I would appreciate it if you would go over our security system with an eye for any holes that can be exploited and how to fill them. I do not care for yet another invasion of our home to succeed, if there must be another invasion at all."

Gambit hesitated. "I'm really not sure I'm the best person for that."

"Remy, you exploit holes in security systems all the time," Storm said, giving him a look.

"Yeah, to steal stuff. I don't lead guerilla forces," Gambit pointed out. "A hole I might exploit in a system to steal something might not affect a combat team in the same way."

"Be that as it may, I would still appreciate your advice."

Gambit looked pained. He didn't want to let Storm down, but he didn't want to let Henri down either. Storm seemed to sense his internal conflict.

"Think about it. Let me know what you decide," she said, and then went on: "Have Rogue and Kitty discussed what they're going to do yet?"

"Do about what?" Gambit asked.

"Staying or going back with you to New Orleans," Storm asked, holding Gambit's gaze. "Kitty's new body won't be ready until the beginning of April after all."

Gambit let out a long, slow breath. That was the real reason why Storm was asking about extending the contract; she wanted to give him an excuse to stay in New York with Rogue and Olivier. Storm knew that he couldn't let Kitty, a non-member, into the Guild Hall. Not unless she was coming in as one of the household staff, and that wasn't going to happen.

"Dammit," he muttered under his breath.

He had been so focused on Nate that he hadn't even considered that. Going six weeks without Rogue was something he was going to have to deal with, as he should expect Rogue to travel a bit with her work as a thief, something he had intimate knowledge of. He didn't like it, but it was a reality he had to face. If it had just been that, he would have simply gone back to New Orleans and left Rogue in New York. However, Olivier was involved too.

'Hang on," Gambit said, pulling out his phone. "I have to make a call."

He dialled Henri's number and waited for him to pick up.

"LeBeau," Henri said, upon answering.

"Since when have we ever been on a lastname basis?" Gambit asked him cheekily.

"Hey Remy," Henri said.

"That's better."

"Very funny."

"I thought so."

"If there a reason for this, or are you just calling to make stupid jokes?"

"I can't do both?" Gambit asked. "Actually, I was calling to run something by you. I probably should have thought of this earlier but... Anyway, it's occurred to me that I'm in a position where I could spend a couple of days in New Orleans every week and do Guild Patriarch stuff. What do you think?"

"You want to commute from New York to New Orleans every few days?" Henri asked dubiously.

"Well, this job's taking a little longer than I would have liked," Gambit said, and not really liking the idea of deceiving his brother, added: "Plus, just between you and me, Stormy wants me to have a look at the security system here. You know, in case a certain mark decides to, uhh, steal his loot back."

"And of course you agreed," said Henri. "You're a bleeding heart, you know that, right?"

"Actually I hadn't agreed yet. I was thinking more if I had the time while I was here. And I don't know why you're objecting so much. I seem to recall you trying to contact Bella Donna when you found out Avril was abducted."

"That was different."

"Uh huh yeah sure," Gambit teased him. "Look, my point here is, do you think my commuting idea is feasible? As you seem to enjoy reminding me, I do have responsibilities to the Guild, and I don't want to shirk them."

"Well, that depends, Remy," Henri said. "Is commuting going to make the job take longer?"

"Doubt it. Mostly surveillance anyway," Gambit replied blithely. "Good practice for Rogue."

"True that. Well, it would be good for the Guild if they could actually see their newly crowned King—"

"Don't you start."

"—actually walking the halls once in a while."

"Alright. I'll make arrangements."

They hung up not long after that and Gambit nodded to Storm.

"I guess I'm inspecting your security system, chère," he said.

Storm smiled. "Thank you, Remy. It is most appreciated."

"Yeah, yeah, don't thank me. You haven't seen the bill yet," Gambit muttered.

"Oh?" Storm inquired.

Gambit raised his hands, palms towards her. "I ain't going to rip you off, chère. I'm going to give you a discount if at all possible, but I've also got to placate the Guild. My time isn't my own any more. I can't just sneak a job in under the Guild radar."

Storm gave Gambit a sympathetic smile as Gambit sank into a nearby chair.

"You really don't like being Patriarch, do you?" she asked, pulling up a chair beside him.

"I ain't cut out for it. I feel like I'm being shoe horned into a place I don't belong," Gambit said, shaking his head. "There's too much politics. I'm sure I could handle it a whole lot better if there wasn't any politics."

"Well, I'm sure that if there's any way for you to manipulate the situation to suit yourself, you'll find it and take full advantage of it," Storm said with a sly smile.

Gambit laughed lightly. "Yeah, probably."

* * *

><p>"Okay," Psylocke said, sitting across from Rogue and Kitty in their bedroom. "Good news; there's no sigh of merging between your personalities. So, that either means you weren't depowered long enough or Rogue has enough experience in retaining her own sense of identity that she didn't need her powers to be active in order to keep your personalities separate."<p>

"Yay," Kitty said with a giggle.

"Good to know," Rogue said languidly.

"It wouldn't have been that big a deal if there was," Psylocke added. "I could have unravelled that kind of merging quite easily. But not having to do any unravelling is probably better."

* * *

><p>Rogue and Kitty returned to the bedroom later on and found Gambit holding Olivier's hands and supporting him while he stood unsteadily on his feet and took a few steps.<p>

["That's it, Oli, you're going great,"] Gambit said, and then glanced up at Rogue and Kitty as they came in. ["How'd it go?"]

"Good," Rogue said. "No merging."

["Good."]

Rogue sighed as she watched her son and shook her head. "I can't believe he's almost a year old. Soon our baby boy's going to be walking on his own."

["Then we'll really be in trouble,"] Gambit replied with a grin. ["Because you know what walking leads to, right?"]

"Everywhere we don't want him to go?" Rogue asked, pleased that her understanding of French was getting better.

["Well, that, and I was thinking it also lead to swaggering."]

Gambit grinned mischievously at Rogue.

"Can we think about him potty training and having a full set of teeth before we start thinking about him becoming a teenager?" Rogue asked, pulling a face at Gambit. "I don't want to dwell on him looking at girls, going through puberty, or manifesting mutant powers right now."

["Getting laid..."]

"If he ends up a teenage father, I'm blaming you," Rogue informed him in no uncertain terms.

Gambit chuckled wickedly.

"Yeah, you totally wouldn't be laughing if that really happened," Kitty piped up.

["Probably not, but it amuses me to joke about it now."]

_"What did he say?" _Kitty asked Rogue, and Rogue translated it for her. Given Gambit's tendency to speak in French around Olivier all the time, except when he had to keep a crowd full of English speakers informed, Kitty often had to have Rogue translate for her, and was learning some French herself as a result.

Sometime later, after showering and changing and getting Olivier to bed, Gambit and Rogue and Kitty got into bed for the night. No sooner than Rogue's head hit than pillow than Gambit was curled up behind her, holding her close.

"Just think chère," he murmured into her ear. "This time yesterday you were in a bar, trying to pick up a Marauder."

"Do I have to think about that?" Rogue asked. "I really don't feel like being reminded of what Victor considers a good time."

"Well, the good news is that he's probably still in a coma," Gambit said. "Everything seemed to happen so fast... I came so close to losing you..."

_"And I think this is my cue to box myself up in the back of your head,"_ Kitty said. _"I'll do my best to block everything out."_

_"Appreciated,"_ Rogue replied, and aloud she said: "But you didn't."

Gambit kissed her forehead.

"Roguey I..." he began, cleared his throat and then went on with a more professional and stern tone. "I need to have a word with you as Patriarch to his Journeyman."

Rogue turned her head to look at Gambit and raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"

"When you went into the nursery, you told me what you were doing, and then you stared grabbing stuff," he said. "While that's all very well and good, you missed something."

"What?"

"There was a baby monitor next to Nate's crib," Gambit said.

"Damn," Rogue muttered under her breath.

"Now, I don't know if Sinister sensed you telepathically and would have come in anyway, but you should have seen the monitor and been as quiet as you could," Gambit went on. "But you didn't, so you weren't and because I noticed, I'm afraid that as the Patriarch of an elitist Guild of Thieves, I have to punish you. We have a very low tolerance for mistakes."

"You have to punish me," Rogue said eyeing Gambit suspiciously. "Is that still the Patriarch talking, or is that my husband?"

"Still the Patriarch," Gambit replied, smirking. "Sorry, ma chère, but you need to be more observant. For that one detail you might have been able to get out without ending up with that bastard in your head."

Rogue nodded. She really could have done without Sinister's psyche talking her over. She was already kicking herself for not noticing the baby monitor in the first place, especially as they used one themselves.

"Alright then," she said. "What kind of punishment are we looking at here?"

"Domestic staff for a month," Gambit replied with a sly look in his eye.

Rogue bolted upright. "Noooo. No way. Uh huh. Not a chance."

"The alternate is being strung up for the gators."

"Remy—"

"This isn't a negotiation, Roguey. Domestic staff is the traditional penalty for not being observant. Amongst other things," Gambit said. "And it's not only good training for being more observant in the future, but you also get to learn other skills that help you blend into the wood work and gather information for jobs, so if anything I'm actually doing you a favour in the long run."

"Be that as it may," Rogue said, glaring at Gambit. "You are not getting me into one of those uniforms."

"Why not?" Gambit asked, grinning at her. "I thought you liked wearing tight, revealing clothing."

"Not that revealing!" Rogue exclaimed. "When I bend over, I generally prefer it if people can't see my underwear."

"So don't wear any," he replied cheekily.

"I'm surprised at you, Remy," Rogue said with dignity. "I thought you didn't like sharing me and those sexed up domestic staff uniforms are only made for one purpose; ogling the people wearing them."

"Nah, everyone knows you're my wife. They wouldn't dare for fear of being strung up for gators."

"You keep telling yourself that."

"You know, normally, the domestic staff aren't supposed to clean the offices, but in your case I might insist that you clean mine," Gambit said slyly.

"Okay, now I know that's my husband talking," Rogue said, wagging her finger at him.

Gambit chuckled and captured her finger. He kissed the tip.

"I look forward to doing you on my desk," he said. "It's a good solid desk too."

"Just make sure you remember to get a box of condoms for your office then," Rogue replied, laying back down beside him and still unhappy about the uniform situation.

"Good idea. I shall keep them on my desk where everyone who comes in will see them," Gambit said wickedly.

"Bad idea."

"How so?"

"They'll just fall on the floor when you sweep everything off to make room for me," Rogue replied cheekily. "Oh, and try not to get too excited when I put everything back on your desk again."

"No promises," he said, brushed some hair out of her face and leaned in. "I need you. Right now."

Rogue wrapped her arms around him.

"Well, it's a good thing that Kitty's made herself scarce, huh?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

After their morning of Tai Chi with Logan, Rogue and Kitty walked back with him from the gardens to the house. It was the day after Nate's rescue, and the women had been trying to figure out if and how they should share what they learned from Victor. Rogue took a deep breath; now was about the only time they could expect to have any privacy for such a discussion.

"Logan," Rogue said. "There's something we've been wanting to tell you."

"Yeah?" Logan said, not sounding particularly interested one way or the other.

"You know how we absorbed Victor Creed the other day?" Rogue said. "Well, we learned some things about you."

Logan didn't reply.

"You know that day he attacked you?" Kitty said. "That really was your birthday. For some reason he seemed to think attacking you would be a good birthday present."

"He's your brother. Well, half brother," Rogue added. "You share a father."

Logan stopped in his tracks and looked at Rogue and Kitty for a good, long moment. They looked back at him steadily.

"You're serious?" he asked finally.

"Yep," said Kitty, nodding. "We even saw you as a kid with bone claws sticking out of your hands. And a bunch of memories of you two serving together in different wars."

"Your name is Howlett," Rogue said. "Victor thought of you as 'Jimmy', but I have the impression it was a nickname for James. So, James Howlett."

"James Howlett," Logan repeated to himself, then shook his head. "Don't remember him."

Rogue reached over and patted his shoulder. "It's okay. We just thought you'd want to know what we picked up. I know how much your lost past bothers you."

"Yeah, thanks darlin'."

* * *

><p>Bobby tried to restrain himself, he really did. But he found it so difficult to concentrate on breakfast when Rogue and Kitty were just a few seats down, humming away happily in between feeding Olivier and eating their own breakfast. He knew he shouldn't say anything.<p>

"So, Kitty, Rogue," he said to them, unable to take it any more. "Have a good sleep last night?"

Rogue raised an eyebrow at Bobby and his inability to keep the smug grin off his face. "Yeah, why?"

"Oh nothing," Bobby said, then casually sang: "Someone got luuuucky."

"I assure you, mon ami," Gambit said, looking at him steadily over his cup of coffee. "Luck had nothing to do with it."

"Ask me how I knew," Bobby said, practically bursting at the seams with glee. "Go one, someone ask me how I knew."

"Okay, how did you know?" Jubilee asked from across the table.

"Because Kitty always hums in the morning after she..." Bobby trailed off, remembering that Piotr was sitting beside him. "Uhh... so does anyone else think that breakfast tastes like foot this morning?"

"If you're talking about the water, then yes," Rogue said, "breakfast tastes exactly like your feet, only warmer."

"I thought that Kitty was making herself scarce last night," Gambit said with a hint of irritation in his voice as he cut up his next mouthful of food.

"Well, I was," Kitty said. "But even though we can keep our minds separate, we are sharing a body, and there are certain, umm...intense things that I can't block out."

"Yeah," Rogue said thoughtfully, scooping up a spoonful of food for Olivier. "I suppose three orgasms would be hard to ignore."

She grinned at the mixed reaction from the table; everything from "too much information!" and nervous giggling, to congratulations and approval. This reaction was quickly brought short by Piotr pushing his place aside, unfinished, and walking out.

"Uhh," Bobby said, watching as his friend left. "I guess that was my fault."

* * *

><p>Sometime later, using Mystique's powers to change her appearance, Kitty joined Piotr in the art room. There were lost of big, wide windows in the art room, and sun light poured through them. Piotr was at the far end behind a large canvas.<p>

"Petey?" Kitty inquired tentatively as she made her way over.

Piotr glanced up from his painting.

"Hi Katya," he replied in his quiet, serious tone.

"Are, umm, are you okay?" Kitty asked tentatively. "Things got a little awkward at breakfast this morning."

Piotr looked back at his painting and dabbed a little paint on his brush.

"It is nothing," he said.

Kitty chewed her lip for a moment.

"Forgive me if I don't believe you, Petey, but I don't believe you," Kitty said. "As happy as I am for Rogue that she has such a fulfilling sex life, that doesn't mean I want to be a part of it. And if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't want me to be a part of it either."

Kitty looked at Piotr expectantly for a response. Piotr made a couple of well-considered strokes on the canvas and finally looked back at her.

"It is difficult thinking of you being with someone else," he said. "But you are not really with someone else, and this situation is only temporary. I will deal with it."

Kitty nodded. "Rogue wanted me to assure you that they're not going to go on any sexcapades either. This situation is just as awkward for them as us."

"As I said. I will deal with it," Piotr said.

"They just wanted a moment after all the Sinister stuff—"

"Katya," Piotr interrupted firmly. "I will deal with it."

Kitty nodded.

"Okay," she said. "Okay. If you're sure."

"I am sure."

"Okay then. I guess I'll let you get back to painting. Rogue and I are going to go play WoW. I haven't had a chance to play Cataclysm yet, so this should be fun," Kitty said, nodding.

"Perhaps I will join you later. Right now, I wish to make the most of the light."

"Right."

Piotr watched as Kitty left, and then looked back at the painting. There was a little black box that almost felt like it was burning in his pocket. Why he felt the need to carry it around, he didn't know, he just did.

He had everything planned. When Kitty had been slowly dying in the containment chamber, he had completely re-evaluated his life and their relationship, and come to a conclusion. He'd gone out and bought a ring, and now he was just waiting for Kitty to be herself, and only herself again. He had been looking forward to the big moment.

Only now, he found himself having second thoughts.

It wasn't that he didn't still love Kitty. On the contrary, he loved her with all his heart. But this morning's incident had reminded him of something that he hadn't really put too much thought into before. Kitty had experience in certain things that he did not, and in the light of both her history with Bobby (and how much he apparently knew about her habits), and how Rogue and Gambit's tryst the night before had affected her, he was feeling somewhat inadequate.

He really wasn't sure how to deal with that.

* * *

><p>"Gambit," Gambit said upon answering his phone.<p>

"Hey Rems, I have a problem," said Emil.

Gambit stifled a groan. Not again!

"Yeah? What is it this time?" he asked.

"I lost my underwear."

Gambit hung up.

* * *

><p>"Wow! Someone took a chunk out of Stormwind, geez," Kitty exclaimed as her night elf priest flew over the city on her gryphon.<p>

"That would be Deathwing," Rogue replied.

"Well, duh."

"Haven't you see any of this yet?"

"Nu-uh, I was stuck in the containment chamber even before the world revamp patch came out," Kitty replied. "See, people kept talking about what the world is like now, but this is the first time I've seen it."

"Fair enough then," Rogue said.

Kitty continued to fly around, checking out the other things that had changed since the last time she played World of Warcraft.

"You know what would be fun?" Kitty said.

"Actually playing the game?" Rogue suggested.

"Shush you, I'm trying to savour this. Actually I was thinking it would be really cool if we could actually walk around in Stormwind, and elsewhere. Like Outland. I think Outland would look awesome if you could actually put yourself in it," Kitty said.

"It's a shame you can't play WoW in the Danger Room then," Rogue said jokingly. "I think that's about the only way you could do it."

Kitty paused, and Rogue sensed her thoughtfulness.

"Kitty?"

"That's not a bad idea," Kitty said. "I wonder if I could convert WoW for the Danger Room? I don't know if I could do the classes or stuff like that, but I might be able to program in the game world..."

"You know, I've never absorbed a precog," Rogue replied dryly, "but I am having this premonition we're going to be spending a lot of time in the Danger Room."

* * *

><p>Joss gave the bloodied, broken body on the ground a hard kick in the side. The body jolted, but otherwise remained motionless.<p>

"I think he's finally dead," Baz said from only a few feet away, a gun resting in his hands.

"Yeah, but who can tell with these muties?" Joss asked.

"Heh," was Baz's only response.

"Meet you at Tony's?"

"Right."

The two young men left in different directions, not giving the dead mutant lying on the ground another thought.

* * *

><p>A few days later, Gambit stepped into the Guild Hall for the first time in two months. After having endured the Carnival season traffic coming back from the airport, Gambit was starting to rethink his plans to commute, even knowing there was no way out of it now.<p>

Henri seemed just a little too pleased about walking down the hallway to Gambit's office, an office which not that long ago had belonged to their father. As they walked, Gambit felt that there was a bit more traffic in the hallway than usual, and all of them gave him reproving looks.

Gambit suspected that Henri had planned the whole thing.

After what felt like a much longer walk than it should have been, Gambit arrived at his office.

"Have fun with all the paperwork," Henri said as Gambit opened up the door. "It's piled up a bit."

"Noted," Gambit replied tersely. "See you at dinner."

"See ya," Henri replied, with an all-too-pleased grin on his face, and he walked off.

With a sigh, Gambit stepped into the office and shut the door behind him. For just a moment he thought he was free of people to get on with the job...and then he saw Jean-Luc sitting in his chair behind the desk.

"Come to take your job back?" Gambit asked.

"Non," Jean-Luc replied.

"Come to reminisce about the old days of having your job?"

"Non."

Gambit put his hands on the back of one of the guest chairs. "Come to harass me about not being here for two months, and taking a big job when I'm supposed to be retired from the field?"

Jean-Luc chuckled.

"Au contraire, mon fils," Jean-Luc replied with a sly grin. "I've come to congratulate you."

"Congratulate me?" Gambit repeated with a raise of his eyebrow.

"Oui," Jean-Luc said, stretching out his arms and tucking them behind his head. "You got out of the office for two months, and you're not even officially back yet. Good work."

Gambit blinked. He opened his mouth, lifted a finger, closed his mouth, frowned, and finally opened his mouth again and said: "No lecture about neglecting my duties?"

"Ha! You're probably getting plenty of that from Henri," Jean-Luc said, grinning at Gambit's reaction. "No, no, even the Patriarch has to have some time off, and you were quite right in taking the Sinister job. Had that come in while I was still Patriarch, I would have given it to you; insisted you take it, in fact."

Gambit sighed in relief and turned the chair around so he could sit on it backwards.

"At last, someone who understands that," he said.

Jean-Luc chuckled knowingly.

"Don't think badly of Henri; his job is dependant on how well you do your job, and vice versa," Jean-Luc said. "But like any job, it is important to take breaks, so make sure you do; just not so often you're more out of the office than in it."

"I will."

"And," Jean-Luc went on with a sly look in his eye, "you may be interested to know that in my younger years as Patriarch, I continued doing jobs too."

"You did?" Gambit asked in surprise.

Jean-Luc nodded.

"Oui. I was one of the best Thieves in the Guild in my time too. There were occasional jobs, high risk, dangerous jobs, where I believed that only the best Thief had a chance to do the job successfully. Very occasional, I might add," Jean-Luc said seriously. "There were also a few occasions where I aided in training."

"Training, hmm?" Gambit inquired thoughtfully.

"Yes, the key is to make sure that the ones you're training do all the leg work," Jean-Luc said. "It's a tedious task, and you've already got enough tedious tasks on your plate as it is. The trick is part time management, part appearances. This commuting thing of yours? Brilliant. My advice, time your visits here for the periods that are busiest."

"More people see me, more people think I'm working hard," Gambit said, filling in the blanks. "You are a sly old fox, aren't you, Père?"

"Just don't over-do it," Jean-Luc said, giving Gambit a pointed look.

"I'm sure I can manage to do things in moderation," Gambit said, then shrugged. "Besides, with Rogue's training, and likeliness to travel, I'm probably going to end up Olivier's primary caretaker. Not that I mind of course, but I don't really cherish the idea of travelling and carting around a toddler at the same time."

Jean-Luc chuckled knowingly.

"I'll leave you to it then," Jean-Luc said, slowly standing up. "Now, if Henri asks, I ripped into you for neglecting your responsibilities."

Gambit chuckled.

* * *

><p>Kitty thought that with Gambit away in New Orleans, it would be easier for her to cope with certain things. For one thing, although Gambit was generally pretty good about wearing pants in the privacy of their bedroom, he wasn't all that discriminate about where he got changed. Kitty had gotten an eyeful of Gambit on more than one occasion, partly due to this indiscretion, and partly because Rogue really enjoyed checking out her husband and would direct her eyes in his direction regardless of what Kitty wanted. It wasn't that Gambit was unattractive—quite the opposite—it was more the knowledge that she was dating Piotr and Gambit belonged to Rogue which was making Kitty uncomfortable.<p>

On top of that, there were intimate moments that Rogue and Gambit shared which made Kitty feel awkward witnessing. Most of the time they weren't even physically intimate moments, but Kitty couldn't help but sense Rogue's intense feelings at such times. On top of the embarrassment of feeling like an intruder, Kitty also felt just a little bit jealous. There was no doubt in her mind that Rogue and Gambit loved each other immensely, and she wondered if she would ever have what they had.

However, although Gambit wasn't there for Rogue to have intimate married couple moments with, Olivier was. And with Gambit in New Orleans, that made Rogue his sole carer for the duration. Kitty had spent heaps of time with Rogue in the past looking after Olivier, but until Gambit had left, Kitty simply hadn't appreciated just how much he did.

It wasn't that Kitty didn't like Olivier, not at all. She just didn't appreciate how much work looking after babies was until she was sitting in Rogue's head watching her do just that.

In an effort to help assert and retain her own sense of identity, Kitty decided to take up ballet dancing again. It had been many years since Kitty had last danced, and although she still had her old ballet shoes, they didn't fit Rogue's feet. Thus Storm kindly offered to take care of Olivier while Kitty and Rogue went to a local dance shop to pick up new shoes. They did toy with the idea of using Mystique's powers again, but Rogue felt like Mystique's powers had been over used a bit lately, and in any case, the point of the task was to do something to help Kitty retain her sense of identity; something probably best not hindered by throwing in a third personality.

Rogue took a backseat inside her mind while Kitty shopped for ballet shoes, and for a leotard and tights, which Rogue didn't already have. Rogue did not like being in the backseat, and after the trouble with Sinister's psyche, she hated it more than ever. It took every ounce of will power Rogue had not to take the reigns and let Kitty have some time to herself. She consoled herself with the knowledge that if Kitty did do anything she didn't like, she wouldn't have nearly as much trouble taking her body back as she did with Sinister, although even that knowledge wasn't quite enough to pluck out all the seeds of fear.

Rogue had only gone into a dance shop once before, a couple of years ago when Merci took her shopping for tap shoes. The tap shoes were what the Thieves Guild used to train and test their members on their stealthy walking. Although Rogue had made significant progress in walking quietly, she had sincere trouble believing that anyone could walk quietly in tap shoes on hardwood floors.

The tap shoes were kept near the ballet shoes in the store, and Rogue could see them out of the corner of her eye. Between the two types of shoes, there was a smaller display from which hung some packets of...something Rogue couldn't quite make out, and couldn't guess what they could be. Of course, Kitty was so focused on her business, that she never paid them any mind, nor looked directly at them, so Rogue couldn't get a better view.

_"What are those?" _Rogue asked finally.

_"What are what?"_ Kitty asked, and Rogue directed her head to the direction she wanted to look. _"Oh, those are tap shoe wraps. They're used to protect the taps on tap shoes, and make silent entrances on stage and stuff."_

Kitty was a little surprised when she heard Rogue chuckling wickedly.

_"Am I missing something?"_ Kitty asked.

_"Yeah, but you don't want to know, anyway," _Rogue replied.

_"Oookay," _and Kitty left it at that.

Later on that day, Kitty had a chance to dance for about an hour. They used the Danger Room, as the school gym lacked in a barre and mirror. Storm made a note to look into getting a portable barre.

Kitty started off with some beginner exercises. The was partly because it had been a few years since she last practised, and partly because Rogue's body had never danced ballet and wouldn't necessarily have the required muscle development to take on the more advances exercises.

Although Rogue couldn't entirely put aside her discomfort with being a passenger in her own body, she did get drawn into the whole ballet experience. Not just the physical aspect, but also emotionally as she felt Kitty's own love of dance come bubbling to the surface. By the time the session was over, Rogue actually had almost as much fun as Kitty did.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Scott burst into Storm's office.

"Ro that—" he started to say, then his eyes fell on Gambit standing off to the side fiddling with a pair of ruby quartz glasses. "You!"

Gambit chuckled and tossed the glasses over to Scott while Storm looked on with a resigned expression on her face.

"Keep your visor on, One-eye," Gambit replied as Scott caught the glasses.

"Where do you get off—" Scott began.

"Usually in the bedroom, but Roguey and I don't like to limit ourselves."

"—stealing from me?" Scott demanded as if Gambit hadn't said anything.

"Remy has been testing our security system," Storm said.

"Needs work," Gambit said, smirking at Scott. "I will concede that this is a security system for a school rather than say, an industrial complex or something, but I still got in here far easier than I thought I would. And I didn't even have to use my powers."

"You didn't need to steal my glasses either."

"I didn't steal them. I borrowed them. You got them back, didn't you?"

"Storm—" Scott started to say, turning his gaze back to the woman behind the desk.

"I think you've successfully made your point, Remy," Storm said, handing Gambit a thick folder. "Get Hank and Logan to help you with the installation."

"Will do, Stormy," Gambit replied with a nod.

"And do not call me that," Storm said as Gambit headed for the door.

Gambit grinned at her from the doorway. "Okay, Stormy."

He chuckled as he closed the door behind him, and Storm turned her attention back to Scott, who was still seething in front of her.

"You're having him go over our security?" Scott demanded.

"For the safety of Nate, and everyone else here," Storm replied firmly as she stood.

"He's a thief!"

"That is the point," Storm said. "Remy has made a living out of finding flaws in security systems."

"And what makes you think that he's not just using the chance to scope out the system so he can steal from us?" Scott asked.

Storm gave a half shrug, remembering some of what she knew of the Thieves Guild. "A valid concern. It wouldn't be the first time someone of the Thieves Guild did something like that. Which is why, as much as I love Remy as a brother, I'm not letting him work on this alone."

"Storm—"

"Scott, he rescued your son," Storm cut in pointedly.

"Yes, that's exactly it! Look, it's not that I'm ungrateful. I'm so incredibly relieved and happy that Nate was rescued from Sinister, and that he's finally safe and sound. But, that's just the thing; to us it was a rescue mission. To him it was just another paycheque," Scott said, sounding both irritated and concerned. Then he noticed the amused expression on Storm's face. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because Remy is very good at what he does," Storm replied. "Up to and including making people who don't know him very well think he really is that cold-hearted."

* * *

><p>Dominic knocked on the door of the suburban home, and after a few moments a man with black hair in his early thirties answered it.<p>

"Yeah?" Baz said, seeing the stranger on his doorstep.

Dominic held up a photo and compared it to Baz's face, then turned it over and showed it to him.

"This you?" he asked.

Baz didn't even look at it.

"What do you want?"" Baz demanded, folding his arms across his chest.

"I'm looking for a flatscan who likes to kill mutants," Dominic replied with a 'pleasant' smile that Baz found singularly unnerving, "and leaves their bodies to rot in dark alleyways."

Baz made a move for his gun, which was unfortunately in a drawer in his bedroom. But, it was already too late even before Baz turned his back on Dominic. Dominic backed off to the middle of the front yard and then started generating a seismic charge. With a stamp of his foot, Dominic brought down the house...literally.

Satisfied that his the fact that he house had been reduced to rubble mean that his quarry was dead, Dominic returned to his car and departed, not at all caring who saw him. This lack of care meant that he didn't notice one of Baz's friends, Joss, at the corner. He certainly didn't see Joss on his phone, ringing for emergency services. Nor did Dominic pay the motorcycle rider any mind even as Joss followed him back home all the way to the other side of the state.

* * *

><p>"Why are we having a birthday party for a one year old?" asked Bobby from where he sat on the rec room floor along side everyone else there. "He's one! He doesn't even know what a birthday is."<p>

"That's 'cause he was too busy being born the last time he had a birthday," Rogue replied primly, then turned her attention back to Olivier. "Okay, Oli, this is a present from Auntie 'Ro."

Olivier looked at the box wrapped in brightly coloured paper, and then thumped it with his hand.

"Wanna open the present and see what Auntie 'Ro got you?" Rogue asked. "Here, let Mama help you."

"Buh," Olivier said.

He watched in fascination as Rogue ripped off some of the paper, and then helped him rip off some more with his own hands. Inside were a couple of textured board books, and although Rogue expressed some excitement over the fun new books on his behalf, Olivier was far more interested in the wrapping paper.

"Merci, 'Ro," Gambit said, giving Storm a grin.

"You are quite welcome," Storm replied.

"Okay, mine next," Tabitha announced, brandishing her present.

Gambit chuckled and accepted the soft, squishy present from Tabitha.

"Merci," he said, then turned to Olivier, who was sitting between himself and Rogue. ["Olivier, this present is from Tabitha."]

This time, Gambit was the one who helped Olivier open up the present. Underneath the wrapping paper was a stuffed toy wearing a Horde insignia, and Gambit recognised it as the Wind Rider Cub that Blizzard sold in their World of Warcraft store.

"Aww cute," said Rogue.

"Hmm," Gambit said, while Olivier busied himself with more wrapping paper (so exciting!). "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this supposed to come with a code for an in-game pet?"

"Mmmmaybe," Tabitha replied in all innocence and avoiding everyone's gaze.

"Uh huh," Gambit considered, then smirked at her and asked: "So is Nate going to get the Gryphon Hatchling for his birthday next month?"

"I admit nothing," Tabitha said.

Rogue laughed.

"Boo Horde," Bobby felt the need to declare.

"Hey Oli, say 'Horde rules, Alliance drools'," Rogue said, knowing full well that such words were currently beyond Olivier's capacity to pronounce.

"Ho," Olivier said.

"Awww, Remy, Oli attempted to say 'Horde'," Rogue said, beaming. "I'm so proud."

"Either that or he was calling you a..." Bobby began, caught the dirty look Rogue threw in his direction, and quickly amended his statement to "hot mama."

"Nice save," said Paige.

"Thanks."

"And this one," Kurt said, putting down a bigger present in front of the birthday boy and his parents, "it's from me, your Uncle Kurt."

"Oooh isn't that a big one?" Rogue said to Olivier. "Say thank you to Uncle Kurt."

All Oliver saw was more wrapping paper, and he completely ignored the new walker in favour of playing with his new 'toy'.

* * *

><p>Rogue was playing patty cake with Olivier when there was a knock at the door.<p>

"Come," she said, and continued on with the game as Tabitha entered.

"Hey," Tabitha said. "I hope I'm not interrupting, but I was hoping I could talk to Kitty for a second?"

Rogue glanced at her, then brought the song to an end and distracted Olivier with his new Wing Rider Cub plushie.

"Okay," Kitty said, standing up once Olivier was distracted. "What's up?"

"Storm wanted me to tell you that we've gotten an update on the Friends of Humanity situation," Tabitha said. "They know where the Brotherhood live. One of their members managed to follow Avalanche home."

"Oh lovely," Kitty said cynically.

"So now they're planning an attack," Tabitha went on. "They're calling to arms everyone who lives in California, and anyone else who can come over for the occasion, which'll be in April some time."

"Does that include Sam?" Kitty asked.

Tabitha shook her head. "He's going to stay out of it, since he can do so legitimately. Easier for him to stay undercover that way. Mostly right now we're trying to decide what to do with the information. A fight between the Brotherhood and the Friends of Humanity is only going to end badly, no matter who wins. You know, both of them are so obsessed with racial superiority, they don't realise how much alike they really are."

Kitty chuckled.

"We'd like to stop the attack if we can," Tabitha went on cautiously, "but we don't know where the Brotherhood live. Sam's working on it. We're also trying to decide if and how we should tip off the Brotherhood that an invasion is coming. On the one hand, we feel they should have fair warning. On the other hand there's no telling what they would do with that information, and we don't want them figuring out how we got it."

Rogue laughed internally. She could see where this was going.

"Rock and a hard place," Tabitha went on. "They're our friends, you know. Don't want to see them hurt. Don't want to hear about them slaughtering people either, even if both sides are already guilty of murder already. Anyway, just wanted to fill you in on the latest. I'll let you guys get back to Olivier now."

They said their goodbyes, and as Rogue sat down by Olivier again, she laughed.

"You guys are so pathetic," she said. "You're trying to keep your hands clean in a mud pit."

"No, we're trying to protect everyone, and that's a very difficult thing to do when you're between two groups of people determined to exterminate each other," Kitty replied reproachfully. "And letting them exterminate each other won't solve anything."

Rogue gave a shrug, and went back to playing with Olivier.

* * *

><p>Later that day, Kurt kindly offered to look after Olivier and give Rogue and Kitty some time to themselves since Gambit was back in New Orleans again for the third time. Rogue and Kitty might have taken the time to do some ballet, but there was strong hinting towards playing World of Warcraft. Rogue found their complete lack of subtly to be highly amusing, and a perverse side of her wanted to do something contrary just for the reaction.<p>

Still, Rogue hadn't been playing World of Warcraft as much lately, so she set her perverse urge aside and happily sat down to play while Kitty watched on. When she logged on both into the game and into Ventrillo, Rogue was rather surprised to find that Gambit was online as well.

"Hey sugah," Rogue said. "I thought you were working."

_"I am working,"_ Gambit replied. _"I'm on here with Gris Gris. That means I'm working on Guild relations."_

_"Whatever you have to tell yourself,"_ Gris Gris said.

Gambit chuckled, and Rogue checked who else was on as she began questing.

"By the way," Rogue said, "certain people might want to check behind themselves when returning home from now on."

_"Not as stealthy as you used to be Gambit?" _Gris Gris asked.

"Actually, I was referring to..." Rogue paused and then figured why should she bother beating around the bush? "Dominic."

_"Me?" _ Dominic asked.

"Yep. You got followed by a member of this group called the Friends of Humanity."

_"Oh those losers,"_ said Wanda. _"We've been finding members of that group all over the place."_

"Yeah, well, now they know where you live, and they're planning an attack," Rogue said. "Sometime in April."

_"They won't get far,"_ Pietro said ominously.

_"How do you know this, Anna?"_ Wanda asked.

"A little bird told me," Rogue replied mischievously.

_"Hmm. Well, thanks for the heads up."_

"You're welcome."

* * *

><p>While Rogue and Kitty were busy playing World of Warcraft, Olivier was busy playing a new game of his own: Catch Uncle Kurt's Tail.<p>

"Look, Olivier," Kurt said, brandishing the little brown teddy bear in an attempt to distract Olivier from chasing his tail. "It's your teddy bear. What's that Mr Teddy Bear? You think Olivier should stop pulling my tail? I think that's an excellent idea."

Olivier giggled and chased after Kurt's twitching tail using the very same walker Kurt had bought him for his birthday.

"Olivier, no," Kurt said, determined to stay out of reach. "Pulling Uncle Kurt's tail hurts Uncle Kurt. You don't want to hurt Uncle Kurt do you?"

It wasn't much of a chase, in the sense that Olivier didn't actually move all that fast in the walker. What he was able to do without Kurt noticing was back him into a corner. Seeing himself with no easy escape, Kurt teleported behind Olivier, leaved a cloud of blue, brimstone-smelling smoke in his wake. Olivier did not like that at all and promptly started crying. Kurt immediately felt bad, mentally berated himself for not knowing better, and picked Olivier up out of his walker to cuddle him.

"There, there," he said. "It's okay. I'm here. Sorry about the smoke. I keep forgetting that it smells. I'm kind of used to it."

To Kurt's relief, Olivier got over his fright quickly, and they moved onto a new game: Got Your Nose.

* * *

><p>"Oh good news," Tabitha said to Storm later on as they passed each other in the hallway. "The Brotherhood found out about the coming attack on them. So now we don't have to worry about telling them."<p>

"Really?" Storm asked with a perfectly straight face. "I suppose they must have their own source of information."

"Must have."

* * *

><p>The school gym was unusually crowded a couple of days later, after Gambit's return to New York; Kitty was having an unexpected audience for her ballet practice. A portable barre had just been acquired along with some tall, allegedly portable mirrors. Bobby gaped from the sidelines as Kitty lifted Rogue's leg above her head.<p>

"Okay," Bobby said, "I knew you were that flexible. I had no idea Rogue was that flexible too."

"I did," Gambit said wickedly while Olivier scooted around in his walker on the wood floor.

Gambit was doing some minor exercises of his own on a blue mat; mostly ones that allowed him to watch Rogue in her skin tight clothing with her hair tied up in a bun. He thought she looked particularly sexy and found himself trying to picture her in a tutu (and then imagining the things he'd like to do with her while she was wearing said tutu).

"I'm just glad Rogue's been keeping in shape," Kitty said absently, lowering her leg again. "Otherwise this would be a lot harder."

"You're just standing there putting your legs and feet in different positions," Bobby said.

Kitty glanced over at him. "Just standing here? You wanna give it a try?"

Piotr let out a sound that was both grunt and chuckle from where he was lifting weights.

"Go on, Bobby," Gambit said, smirking at him. "Let's see you dance."

Bobby looked hesitant, sensing he'd just asked for trouble, but he got up and walked over anyway. "Okay."

"Alright," Kitty said when he had put his hand on the barre, facing her. "Now, put your feet together like this; touching at the heels and toes pointing out."

Bobby obediently copied the V shape Kitty made with her feet. Kitty nudged his toes out further with her foot when she didn't think they were pointing outwards enough.

"That's first position," she told him, then shifted her right foot to the side, still with her toes pointing out. "This is second."

Bobby copied this position as well. "See? Easy."

While Kitty went on to demonstrate the rest of the five basic positions (and successfully confusing Bobby when it came time to actually practice them), Gambit grabbed hold of Olivier before he could stumble onto a mat where a couple of the students were having a sparring match.

["Whoa there,"] he said, picking up Olivier out of the walker. ["I think that's enough of the walker for now. How about you help Papa with his weight lifting?"]

Olivier giggled and squealed as Gambit swung him into the air.

["And one,"] Gambit said, grinning up at Olivier as he lifted his son above his head and lowered him again. ["And two... and three..."]

Scott arrived at the doorway then, and was a little surprised as he walking into the gym at just how crowded it was. His eyes fell on Gambit playing with his son, and he remembered what Storm had said about Gambit making people think he was cold-hearted. Maybe she was right, and perhaps he had been too quick to criticise.

The school had changed so much since he was last here. And thanks to the Sentinels, he wasn't even standing in the original mansion any more. For some reason a part of him had believed that the school would never change, that it would always be the same place. It was foolish thinking, and he knew it, but the knowledge stung all the same.

As he looked around the gym he could see so many people who had been students before he 'died'. But they had grown up into adults and some—Scott looked over at Rogue—had even started families of their own. In his mind, Rogue was still that seventeen year old girl he'd rescued from Sabretooth.

"I didn't realise the gym had a peak hour," Scott said.

"It does not," Piotr replied, still doing his weights. "Everyone wanted to watch Kitty using the new barre."

"Come on, Bobby," Kitty said, her eyes alight with glee as he attempted to follow her movements. "You're not that uncoordinated."

"Shuddup," Bobby muttered.

Kitty chuckled.

"And these are just warm ups," she said. "I haven't even hassled you about your posture or made you do this yet."

Kitty lifted her leg above her head again, effectively doing the splits while standing up. Bobby pulled a face.

"Yeah, okay, I can't do that," he said.

Kitty grinned as she put her leg back down again, placing her foot down in front of the other and closing the distance between herself and Bobby ever so slightly.

"Giving up already?" she asked tauntingly.

It was crazy. He was talking to Kitty while she used Rogue's voice. He was looking at Rogue's body dressed up like Kitty and smelling like Kitty's deodorant. Two women he cared about and long since lost any chance of being with mixed up as one. He swallowed hard.

"I think it's probably better that way," he said, his voice low and ragged as he tried to fight off the attraction he felt for her—them.

A part of Kitty panicked as unwanted memories came to mind; ones where Bobby had talked to her in exactly that tone. She mentally cursed him for that and chewed her bottom lip.

Neither noticed that their faces have grown closer until a playing card exploded just inches from their heads. They both jumped apart and looked at Gambit, who was glaring angrily at them, his eyes glowing with fury.

"Back off," Gambit said in a voice of cold steel.

Neither Bobby nor Kitty had any idea which one Gambit was directing that command to, so they both backed off. The gym had become unusually quiet as everyone turned to watch. With Olivier in his arms, Gambit stalked over to Kitty. Kitty shrunk under his gaze; he could be quite intimidating when he wanted to be.

"Give Rogue back her body," Gambit told her. "Now."

Kitty wanted to object; this was her time, she was supposed to be maintaining her sense of identity. But aside from the fact that she could already feel Rogue's mind bubbling to the surface, Kitty was actually feeling a little scared of Gambit at that moment. She felt like she could actually taste his rage, smell it like ozone before the rain. Kitty backed off without a word of protest.

Gambit could actually see the moment when Rogue took back control of her body, subtle though the signs of the transition may have been. He lifted one hand to brush her cheek.

"Roguey," he said tenderly, without even a hint of his recent anger in his voice.

Rogue smiled and caught his hand in hers. She kissed it.

"I should change," she said.

"I'll help."

"I'm sure of that."

Not another word was said as Rogue, Gambit, and Olivier departed. Once the door shut behind them, Piotr looked towards Bobby.

"What exactly happened?" Piotr asked

He had been focusing on his weights and hadn't been looking up at the time to see. Bobby swallowed and shook his head.

"Nothing happened," Bobby replied, his voice full of bitterness. "Word of advice, Pete? Don't let me be alone with your girlfriend. Can't promise nothing will happen next time."

And on that, Bobby left.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Psylocke lifted her hand to wipe away some of the condensation from the clear panel of the cloning chamber. Kitty's clone actually looked like her now. So much like her, in fact, that Psylocke was hard pressed to believe that she wasn't quite finished yet. Two more weeks and she would be complete.

It was strange. Psylocke knew that she had once been two separate people, but she no longer felt like two different people. She had two different childhoods in two entirely different countries and cultures, but they were both her. Her memories of being in England were much clearer and vibrant than being in Japan, as those memories were badly fragmented and emotionless, not doubt because Kwannon's body was a clone of the real Kwannon (although why a clone would end up with replica memories, Psylocke wasn't all that certain). Regardless, she had lived both those lives. No matter how much her memories failed to line up in any sort of chronological order, she was both Betsy and Kwannon.

She was not upset about losing the chance to claim a new body for Betsy. Quite the opposite in fact, Psylocke wondered why she once felt it was necessary.

* * *

><p>Rogue and Kitty sat down at the breakfast table with their plate, and almost as soon as her behind hit the seat, Piotr got up and left. Kitty looked at Piotr's mostly empty plate and shrunk back into Rogue's mind.<p>

_"He's mad at me, isn't he?"_ Kitty said.

_"Well, you did almost kiss Bobby,"_ Rogue said disgustedly. _"I'd be mad too... oh wait..."_

_"Not helping."_

_"Whoever said I wanted to help? I could feel your lust, you know. You would have jumped his bones then and there—"_

_"Just shut up, Rogue!"_

Rogue rolled her eyes as Kitty buried herself in the back of Rogue's head, determined to hide from everyone.

* * *

><p>Storm looked up from watering her plants when Bobby came barging into her greenhouse with excitement written all over his face.<p>

"I found it!" he exclaimed, waving his arms around erratically. "Storm, I found it! It was so simple we should have thought of it ages ago!"

"Please avoid taking off any leaves from my plants, Robert," Storm replied in her usual calm as she turned to face him. "Now what is it that you have found?"

"The Brotherhood's base," Bobby said proudly. "You remember how the Sentinels attacked us? Yeah well, they sent out other Sentinels as well. One to New Orleans, and another two to California, which attacked the Brotherhood, right? I just had to figure out where exactly in California they went and that was easy. Sightings, you know. And there was an earthquake at the same time, so I figure that was probably Dominic, umm, Avalanche."

"Ahh. Good detective work there," Storm said with a nod, feeling a little silly herself for not investigating what now seemed obvious. "We will need to verify that they are still there, and I will inquire of Tabitha if she has gotten any more useful information from Sam regarding the attack."

* * *

><p>Scott happened upon Gambit and Logan as they were busy setting up some of the upgrades to the security system to the outside wall. Gambit was on top if the roof with a box and Logan was on top of a ladder by Gambit, whilst they set up one of the new sensors. Neither man acknowledged him, but Scott knew they both knew he was there.<p>

"How's it going?" he asked.

"Fine," Logan replied with the tone of someone trying to concentrate on something.

"Did you need a hand with anything?" Scott asked as Gambit's phone started to ring.

"Nope," Logan replied while Gambit fished his phone out of his pocket with his free hand.

"Gambit," Gambit said, answering his phone.

"Hi Oncle Remy. It's me, Claude."

"Hi Me Claude," Gambit replied, grinning to himself. "How's things?"

"Okay, mostly. Umm... Look, I have a little problem..." Claude said awkwardly. "And I won't be here when you come back so..."

"Hit me," Gambit said.

"If you insist, Gumbo," Logan said the same time Claude replied with: "Lucian stole control over the TV."

Gambit burst out laughing. Scott eyed Gambit speculatively; he was pretty close to the edge.

"He got an app that turns his smart phone into a remote control," Claude said. "At first I thought he bought it—there are existing apps that can do that—but no, it turns out that he programmed it himself, and I can't find a way to hack into it," and when Gambit continued laughing, Claude added: "It's not that funny, Oncle Remy."

"You kidding me? That's hilarious," Gambit said. "I'm such a proud oncle right now."

"Uh huh yeah. It's not cool. He keeps watching that stupid Next Top Model show and changing the channel every time I want to watch something," Claude said, sound annoyed.

"Why do you care?" Gambit asked.

"Pass me the screwdriver, will you, Cajun?" Logan asked.

"You're only going to be leaving soon anyway," Gambit went on, passing Logan the screwdriver. "For that matter there's nothing stopping your from stealing your own TV, which, frankly, I think might be the real solution here. Heck, for that matter, you're just about old enough; move out of home. Get yourself a love pad."

"A love pad?" Logan repeated with a snicker, and Gambit grinned wickedly at him.

"I don't know..." Claude said hesitantly.

"Oh, I got ya," Gambit said. "You get your meals cooked for you at the Guild Hall, and your Mama does your laundry."

"Well..."

"You know, I always wanted to say this," Gambit said cheerfully. "Ahem: When I was your age I was subjected to an arranged marriage, challenged to a duel to the death, kicked out of house and home, exiled from New Orleans, and was forced to rely on me and only me for food, water, and shelter for the second time in my life. Clean clothes were a luxury. You should thank your lucky stars you even have a TV to fight over."

"But..."

"Go find yourself a cosy little apartment somewhere, steal yourself a huge TV and a wicked sound system, and take women home with you for long nights of love-making," Gambit said. "You're not supposed to bring guests back to the Guild Hall anyway."

"I know that, but that doesn't really help me with my problem now," Claude insisted. "You gave Lucian advice..."

"Lucian isn't a Master Thief yet, unlike you," Gambit said. "But since I'm your favourite oncle—"

"You're my only oncle."

"—I will relent. Is it really control over the TV that you want? Or do you just want to watch your—"

"Oui, it's really control over the TV that I want," Claude said. "It's better for watching movies on."

"Alright then. You need to find a way to disable Lucian's smart phone."

"I've been trying—"

"Oui, to hack into it, you said. But there's more than one way to skin a cat, mon ami. Anyway, as nice as this chat has been, I have to go now," Gambit said. "Good luck on your job."

"Merci."

Logan snorted when Gambit hung up.

"Get your own love pad?" Logan said. "You planning on giving Olivier the same advice?"

"Oh probably," Gambit replied flippantly as he put his phone back in his pocket. "When he gets to that age. Maybe. Only after I'm sure he's not gonna give me any grandchildren by accident."

Logan chuckled knowingly.

* * *

><p>Rogue and Gambit headed down the hallway with Olivier and his things to the dining hall for dinner. On the way there, they happened to pass by Storm's door as she exited, looking rather stunning in a white evening gown that clung to her body like a second skin. Gambit gave her a wolf whistle, and she responded with a patient, but flattered smile.<p>

"Don't you look gorgeous," he said.

"Thank you, Remy," Storm replied, walking with them down the hall.

"Hot date?" Gambit asked. "Who's the lucky man? Logan?"

"Forge," Storm said.

"Ahh. My bad," Gambit said, thinking of the man he'd only met once or twice.

"And how is Kitty faring?" Storm asked Rogue. "I have not seen much from her lately."

"She's busy sulking because Pete's avoiding her," Rogue replied.

"I am not sulking," Kitty objected, sounding sulky.

"I see," Storm said thoughtfully, only now realising that she hadn't seen Kitty and Piotr in the same room—at least, not for very long—for a couple of days. "Have you tried talking to him?"

"Haven't had the chance," Kitty said. "He keeps leaving the room every time I enter. He hates me doesn't he? It's—"

"Oh man, please don't start your whining," Rogue said, completely unsympathetic. "I'm really not in the mood to hear any more of your whinging and moaning about how he's mad at you and hates you and everything's over between you and blah blah blah. You brought it all on yourself."

"I doubt that everything is over between you and Pete, Kitty," Storm said firmly. "And I definitely do not believe for a moment that Pete hates you."

"Thank you, 'Ro," Kitty said, sounding only a little heartened by her words. "I really didn't mean to kiss Bobby—almost kiss Bobby—I just... I don't know. I just suck, I guess."

"Yep, lusting after one person when you're dating someone else if definitely ground for being a sucky person in my book," Rogue said. "Along with some other words—"

"You're mad at me too! I get it, already!" Kitty shouted. "Would you just—"

Olivier started crying at Kitty's raised voice. Rogue, who was the one carrying Olivier, immediately shut Kitty down so she could attend to her son.

"Shh, shh, it's okay sweetie," Rogue said, gently stroking Olivier's head. "You're not in trouble. It's okay, I promise."

They reached the foyer then, and Gambit wished Storm a good night as she departed.

* * *

><p>Gambit cuddled with Rogue in bed later that night.<p>

"Back to New Orleans tomorrow," he said, sounding irritable. "This commuting business sucks."

Rogue chuckled lightly and kissed his nose.

"Not much longer now," she said. "The clone body is almost done. Two weeks to go. Less than two weeks, actually."

"Not soon enough," Gambit said, sighed and then said: "First weekend we're both back in New Orleans, I'm taking you back to my place and we're going to find out just how much stamina we really have."

Rogue laughed, thinking about the small mansion that had been Gambit's home for over half his life. It was situated just far enough out of New Orleans that the Assassins hadn't been able to complain about him breaking exile.

"What about Olivier?" she asked.

"We'll figure something out."

"Alright," Rogue said, tracing his jawline with her finger. "We should probably check all the condoms are still in date though."

Gambit laughed. He remembered the night that Olivier had likely been conceived only a box of twenty-years-out-of-date condoms had been available. Perhaps he of all people should have known better than to put stock in "it'll be okay just this once" but it was his birthday, he just found out his exile had been lifted, and he was with the woman he loved more than anyone else in the world. It had been completely worth it, and he didn't regret Olivier for a second. If anything, it just made Olivier all the more special to him.

"I don't know, chère," he said, grinning slyly at her. "Would another lovechild be all that bad?"

"Lovechild," Rogue repeated with a snicker. "I'm really not sure I want to conceive another baby while we're making up for lost time being intimate. I think I'd like to enjoy being intimate with you for longer than just one weekend before I get pregnant again."

Gambit sighed dramatically, but he wasn't really unhappy. They'd already talked about having another baby while they were on their honeymoon (that felt so long ago now) and agreed to wait for the time being.

"Well, if you insist," he said.

He kissed her. He wanted very much to make love to her then and there, but even if they hadn't heard much from Kitty lately, she was still in Rogue's head. What he had to give Rogue he didn't want Kitty to share; it was for Rogue and Rogue alone.

* * *

><p>Gambit returned to New Orleans for a couple of days and took the time to congratulate Lucian on stealing control over the TV. Lucian, delighted at having an audience that was willing to listen, ended up in a long chat with Gambit about all the other smart phone applications he was working on and had ideas for.<p>

"Lucian's going to be trouble," Gambit told Henri later when they finally got down to work. "In a good way though. If his programming skills can meet his imagination..."

Henri chuckled. "By the way, thanks for telling Claude to move out. Mind you, don't tell Merci I said that."

"My lips are sealed."

"How's the X-men job going anyway?"

Gambit shrugged. "Don't see any reason why we won't be back in say, two weeks. I'll let you know if that changes, but I don't think it will."

"Great."

* * *

><p>Gambit returned to the school after his weekend away, and it was with much relief that he walked through the bedroom door. Rogue was seated in the middle of the bedroom floor on a play mat with Olivier reading a book with him. She looked up as Gambit entered.<p>

"Hi sugah," she said, then added to Olivier while pointing at Gambit: "Look, Oli, Papa's back."

"Papa," Olivier said happily.

"Bonjour Olivier," Gambit replied as he dropped his bag gratefully on the floor

Rogue smiled and stood up to greet Gambit properly with a kiss.

"How was the trip?" she asked while Olivier looked around.

["Okay, I guess,"] Gambit replied with a shrug, and he headed his forehead on hers as Olivier crawled over to the small coffee table. ["But hey, at least I'm reducing the workload I have to face when this job is officially over."]

Rogue kissed his nose. "This is true."

Gambit's eyes flickered over to Olivier as his young son used the coffee table to pull himself up onto his feet. Olivier had been doing that for some time now, so he didn't think too much of it. He did keep watch on him however, knowing even though the room had been "baby proofed" Olivier could still get up to mischief.

["And how have things been here?"] he asked.

"Yeah, okay," Rogue said, with her back still to Olivier, who was looking towards the chair that had his teddy bear and Wind Rider Cub sitting on it. "Oli snuck up on Kurt while you were away and pulled his tail. I have never seen Kurt jump that high."

Gambit started to laugh, but broke himself off as he saw Olivier let go of the coffee table.

"Chère..." he said softly.

"Hmm?" Rogue murmured and turned to see what he was starring at.

Olivier took one step on his toes, and then another, and finally a third that brought him to the chair, and all without holding onto anything. He reached over and attempted to grab his bear, but it was just that little bit too far away. The Wind Rider Cub's paw was closer, so Olivier grabbed that instead and pulled it towards him.

"He just walked," Rogue said, as if saying the words would make it real. "Remy, our baby just walked!"

["Yes he did,"] Gambit said, sounding just as stunned.

Barely knowing how he got there, Gambit swept up Olivier in his arms, Wind Rider Cub and all. He hugged him as Rogue joined them.

"Hey Oli," Rogue said. "Did you just walk now, did you? And all by yourself? Such a clever boy."

["Very clever,"] Gambit said in agreement, and then put Olivier back on the floor again. ["Do you want to try it again?"]

"I'll grab the camera," Rogue said.

However, much to the disappointment of both parents, Olivier was far more interested in playing with his toy than standing on his feet again, let alone doing more walking.

"Oh well," Rogue said, putting the camera back down when it became evident that Olivier wouldn't be taking any more steps right away. "At least we saw him take his first step, right?"

["Right,"] Gambit replied as he sat down next to Olivier to play with him. ["I'm sure he'll be taking plenty more before long, and we'll be dreading every one of them."]

Rogue chuckled.

* * *

><p>Tabitha swore loudly. It was a few days later, and the computer room was full of people, most of whom were playing World of Warcraft.<p>

"Tabitha," Scott said, frowning at her from the other side of the computer room, where he had been working on a report. "That is not—"

"The Friends of Humanity have moved up their attack," Tabitha said urgently as she stood. "They're attacking the Brotherhood right now."

For the briefest moment there was silence as everyone registered this (or alternatively, realised that something urgent had been announced), and then there was chaos as the X-men hurriedly quit their games and otherwise packed up, figured out who needed to stay and baby-sit, rush off, and alert Storm and the other non-WoW playing X-men what was going on.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

At the same time on the other side of the country, the Brotherhood and those that lived with them in their residential village had become intimately aware that the Friends of Humanity had brought forward that attack. As innocent as the residential village appeared, just like the Xavier Mansion, the Brotherhood home was also sporting a hidden combat system.

The first round had not gone well for the Friends of Humanity.

Once the Friends of Humanity managed to breech the walls, however, it became a different story. The Brotherhood couldn't use the more lethal defences lest they get hurt as well. The more vulnerable members of their community were secured and locked down in the underground compound, while everyone else engaged in battle.

John hurled fireballs from one of the roof tops, cackling madly.

"Pyro! Watch it with the fire!" Wanda yelled at him from another rooftop where she was throwing hex bolts.

"I feel like my mage in the flesh!" John called back to her. "Real life PvP! This is awesome."

"Yeah? Well, you're burning the houses down!" Wanda replied, gesturing to a number of buildings that were on fire.

"That's not me!" John objected. "But I can fix it!"

He threw a few more fireballs, and then headed back inside the house. He climbed down the stairs to the bottom floor, opened up the front door and created a horse out of flame to lead the way.

It was chaos outside. Much to John's annoyance, the Friends of Humanity were wearing kevlar body armour, which was fire resistant. It took a lot of effort to set one of those things alight, and when he did, they usually pulled out a fire blanket or a fire extinguisher that they just happened to be armed with. The fact that they had come prepared to fend off his powers really ticked John off.

John hurried over to the other side of the village, doing his best to avoid getting shot even as Pietro whizzed around trying to disarm all of them. He passed by one of their 'honourary' members, Marrow, who was completely vicious in her attacks. She found all the gaps between each piece of body armour and stabbed her opponents with blades made of bones from her own body.

As he ran, John kept up an escort of fire creatures to deter the enemy from coming too close. He jumped over an upheaval of concrete that showed all the signs of Dominic's work. John knew that Dominic was being careful with his powers, as he wouldn't want to endanger their people who had taken refuge in the underground levels of their base. That hadn't been a concern the last time they had been invaded here; only himself, Dominic, Wanda, Pietro, and Mastermind had been living there at the time, and Mastermind had been off visiting her sister or something when the Sentinels attacked.

At last John was close enough to the fires burning down their homes to snatch hold of them with his powers and put them to better use against the Friends of Humanity. Those fire extinguishers and blankets would only last so long, and it occurred to John on his run that he could always set fire to their feet, faces, and hands specifically, rather than their body in general, most of which was protected by the kevlar. He taunted the Friends with flames in the shape of creatures; snakes, horses, birds, anything and everything else that came to mind.

"That is so awesome," a voice said behind him.

John glanced over his shoulder to see a man at least ten years old than himself, also wearing kevlar and armed with Molotov cocktails. This surprised John, since the Friends of Humanity had obviously gone to so much trouble to thwart his powers, so why would they bring fire bombs? The older man seemed fascinated by John's artwork.

"Yes it is," John agreed, eyeing him warily.

"You're Pyro, right?" the man asked.

"That's right. You're the one setting our homes on fire?" John asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah," he said, and then nodded towards John's fire monkey which climbed over his victim and ate his face. "That is amazing."

"Well, an artist always likes to hear his work appreciated," John said, "even if it is from a scum sucking flatscan."

"Yeah, well, you muties are a damn menace to society," the man retorted hotly, paused, and then added: "But that is just so beautiful!"

Never mind the fact that people were being burned alive right in front of them.

"I know," John said happily "I don't understand how anyone can't appreciate the sheer majesty of a fire."

"I know, man, I know. They're just so blind."

"Yeah," John said.

He just wished the Friends of Humanity were wearing something other than kevlar at that moment. The low level of oxygen in it made it very difficult for John to show off for his new fan, and he certainly couldn't start burning down his home.

"Hey..." John said glancing back at him, "what you say we ditch this stupid fight, and go burn something down worthy? Like a petrol station? Or native bushland?"

The man nodded eagerly. "There's a gas station not far from here."

"I know the one."

While John and his new friend sneaked away, the battle continued to go badly for both sides. The Friends of Humanity had just enough in the way of defence and firepower to hold their own against the Brotherhood, and they severely outnumbered the mutants.

Pietro was forced to retreat with multiple injuries caused mostly by shrapnel; as fast as he was, he generally paid more attention to bullets than he did to what happened after the bullets hit something other than himself, and small injuries though they may have been, they did add up. Enough Friends of Humanity got through to pile on top of Dominic. His battle armour provided him with a good deal of protection, but that didn't stop the Friends from trying to find holes—or make holes—in it. With his need to practice restraint, it wasn't so easy for Dominic to free himself.

Mastermind, who had been using her powers of illusion to trick the Friends into firing upon each other, had been shot. The injury was severe enough that Wanda temporarily abandoned her fight long enough to get her to safety. The good news was that amongst the people they were protecting there was a healer. The bad news was that his powers were limited; the worse the injuries, the more it took out of him. This battle would be a considerable drain of his energies and most of his patients would have to do the bulk of the healing process the conventional way.

Wanda headed back out to the battle. Despite limiting her hex bolts to things that were more likely to happen, the number of hex bolts she had been casting were taking their toll. The effort was exhausting, and the number of injured on their side was growing. She was also concerned by the lack of fire in the area. She hoped that John was all right and it was just a case of him making sure their home didn't burn down.

A Friend carrying a long knife jumped out at her then, and only a well-timed hex bolt kept her from being tackled to the ground. He face-planted, and although Wanda hadn't planned it that way, the knife he had been carrying stabbed himself instead. She was about to check on his current threat level, when she heard the sound of an engine and a large shadow fell over the village. She lifted her head and grinned.

It was the Blackbird.

The Blackbird landed on one of the few parts of the road that hadn't been ripped up by Dominic, and out came Storm, Rogue, Logan, Bobby, Piotr, Kurt, and Hank. Storm and Rogue immediately took to the skies. Storm used her winds to literally blow the Friends of Humanity into a group, and Rogue used Magneto's powers to remove the rest of their weapons. Logan, Bobby, and Piotr went after the stragglers, seeking to capture as many of the Friends as possible. Kurt and Hank went to work seeking out the wounded on both sides.

Wanda jumped when, with a bamf, Kurt appeared beside her.

"Are you all right, Wanda?" he asked.

"I am now," she replied.

* * *

><p>The Brotherhood were not at all happy when, instead of killing the many members of the Friends of Humanity who managed to escape, the X-men decided to tend to their injuries just as they helped the Brotherhood with their wounded.<p>

"They came here to kill us!" Wanda yelled at them.

"And you have been killing them, and other humans, for over a year now," Storm replied calmly.

"They started it. We're just defending our people," Wanda retorted hotly.

"With a little discretion and diplomacy, you could have avoided this battle. There is no way to spin this battle, Wanda. It only serves to vindicate the opinions of bigots on both sides. So yes, we are helping them as we help you, for it may only be through compassion that we can demonstrate to everyone what humanity really is."

Wanda yelled at Storm awhile longer, but couldn't stand up against Storm's carefully cultured calm demeanour, and eventually dropped it. When she did, she looked around for her husband. She grew increasingly worried when she couldn't find him.

"Anna," Wanda said, placing her hand on Rogue's shoulder while she continued to look over the number of wounded. "Have you seen John anywhere?"

"No, I can't say I have," Rogue said.

"I can't find him anywhere."

Rogue nodded and pulled out Logan's psyche. She sniffed the air.

"Let's see if we can find him."

* * *

><p>John watched the flames as they burned hot and bright over the petrol station, drinking up the various fuel sources with gusto and burning out cars. It was such a glorious vision.<p>

"John Allerdyce!"

John winced at the sound of his wife shrieking his name, and he turned to see Wanda and Rogue bearing down on him and his new friend. John could almost see the steam pouring from Wanda's ears.

"Uhh, hi, Wandy-baby," he said awkwardly as she stalked right up to him

"How dare you!" She yelled at him, jabbing her fingers into his chest. "I was worried about you! I thought you had been killed! And where do I find you? Here! With a flatscan! Burning down a stupid gas station! How dare you abandon us like that! We were in the middle of a battle for—"

While Pyro shrivelled under the lash of his wife's tongue, Rogue and John's new friend met eyes.

"Carlos?" she said.

"Rogue," Carlos replied evenly, and looked back at the blazing fire.

"I thought mutants were a menace to society," Rogue said, moving to stand next to him.

"You are," Carlos said determinedly.

"Yet, you decided to abandon your friends in the middle of a battle to bond with a mutant."

"Hey, we weren't bonding," Carlos said defensively. "We were just looking for better stuff to burn."

"Uh huh. You know, it doesn't really surprise me that you and Pyro decided that your mutual pyromania was more important than some humans versus mutants fight," Rogue said smugly. "You have similar priorities."

"Whatever. Is this the part where you kill me?" Carlos asked, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the fire.

"I might be a menace to society, sugah, but it ain't because I'm a mutant, and it sure ain't because I'm a murderer," Rogue replied. "But you had better get going all the same; it won't be long before the cops arrive."

Carlos turned his head and looked at her in disbelief. "You're letting me go?"

"Yeah," Rogue said, smirking at him. "And you fire-bombed my place while I was still in it, you jackass, so consider yourself damned lucky."

* * *

><p>They hadn't been back at the residential village five minutes when there was another arrival. Magneto looked around at the mess that had been the home of the Brotherhood and shook his head in disgust as he approached the group, Mystique close behind.<p>

"I see the humans have yet to accept us as their superiors," Magneto said, looking at the humans in disdain. "And still you help them? It is more than they deserve."

"We are trying to protect everyone, human and mutant alike," Storm said. "Professor Xavier always believed that we could live in peace, and I will not give up on that dream. As it is, there is little more we can do. Hank does not have the facilities to attend to everyone, but at the very least we can save some of them."

"They will not be grateful," Magneto said. "And you are a fool if you believe that will change their minds."

"I am only a fool if I give up," Storm replied firmly. "I may not get to see Professor Xavier's dream fulfilled in my lifetime, but it is a dream worth having and pursuing all the same."

"It is a pipe dream," Magneto said, and turned his back on her to face his Brotherhood, even as he continued talking to her: "And get those humans out of here. We have work to do."

The X-men did remove the humans—both the injured and the dead—not because of Magneto, but because they'd been working on doing just that already. The injured needed medical attention, and the families of the dead needed to be alerted. It was a thankless task, for most of the humans capable of voicing their opinions resented and even rejected their assistance—or tried to reject it.

They located the vehicles that the Friends of Humanity used to arrive in, and took on loading them up again as best they could. While Rogue and the X-men was busy in this way, Magneto started building a thick metal wall around the village. When queried, Magneto simply made a comment about humans being so predictable, and left it at that.

Mystique walked over to Kurt when he rested between teleports. She stood beside him and looked around at the number of humans waiting to be transferred. A lot of the injured were incapable of moving very far or very fast on their own.

"Did you happen to find their leader?" Mystique asked Kurt.

Kurt looked up at her, but she didn't look back.

"I do not know," Kurt replied. "I am afraid I would not know the leader if I fell over him in the street. Tribune, or something?"

"That's right," Mystique replied, thin-lipped. "Well, perhaps he went with those who escaped."

"Perhaps," Kurt said, and then added with some regret: "He may also be with the dead. There are a lot of dead—"

"Don't get your hopes up."

"I do not hope for the death of anyone," Kurt said reproachfully. "Mystique, I... I know this might not be the best time, but I was wondering if—"

"Rogue," Mystique said, cutting him off as she caught Rogue's eyes. "How's Olivier?"

Rogue glanced at Mystique, then at Kurt and noticed the crestfallen expression on his face. She looked back up at Mystique. She wasn't really sure how to act towards her adopted mother. Rogue had learned when she absorbed her at their last meeting that Mystique and Irene had abandoned her as a teenager to save her life. Of course, Rogue would not have learned that if she hadn't absorbed Mystique after she tried to kill Gambit.

"Olivier's fine," Rogue replied tersely. "So's Remy, thanks for asking. How's Graydon?"

Mystique tensed. For a long moment Rogue and Mystique just looked at each other, then Mystique turned on her heel and left. Kurt looked down at the ground and sighed, burying his face in his hands.

"Am I a fool, Rogue?" he asked.

"No, of course not," Rogue replied, quickly sitting down by him and throwing an arm over his shoulders. "Why would you think that?"

"For wanting to get to know Mystique better," Kurt said. "She is my mother but..."

Rogue chewed her bottom lip as she rubbed Kurt's back, and remembered things she had learned the last time she looked around Mystique's psyche.

"Kurt... Mystique loves you very much," Rogue said gently. "She just can't say it. She doesn't know how."

Kurt lifted his head, smiled at Rogue and patted her hand.

"Danke, Rogue," he said.

Rogue gave a half shrug.

"Hey," she said wryly. "What else are sisters for?"

As soon as all the Friends of Humanity were loaded onto their vehicles, they were taken to the nearest hospital and left there. Knowing that the Friends of Humanity would likely spin things to suit themselves, Storm decided that the X-men would hold a press conference to ensure that the truth of the matter got out. Rogue bowed out of the press conference, and of the police investigation she knew would follow.

* * *

><p><em>"...over a hundred dead and at least fifty injured in a battle between the Brotherhood of Mutants and a group known as the Friends of Humanity. The Friends of Humanity were heavily armed and wore body armour when they attacked a residential village reported to be the home of the Brotherhood of Mutants..."<em>

Gambit played with Olivier on the floor of the rec room while the news played and everyone else listened intently to it. He was less interested in the outcome of the battle and more interested in Rogue's part in it. Rogue had gone because she felt she couldn't stand by while their friends were in danger.

_"...Magneto has been sighted..."_

Tabitha wondered where he had been all this time.

_"...was broken up by a third group known as the X-men, and I have Storm, leader of the X-men with me right now..."_

Scott sat up in his seat. He found it weird hearing Storm being described as the leader, especially when he had long suspected Professor Xavier of grooming himself for that position. He wasn't really sure what he should feel about the 'demotion' even though at the time of Storm's 'promotion' he had been Sinister's prisoner, and couldn't have led even if he wanted to. Still, as he watched the subsequent interview, he had to concede she handled things much better than he would have. The calm demeanour Storm had been forced to cultivate in order to control her powers was definitely an asset. Scott only hoped she would come across as objectively to everyone else as she did to him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>Just wanted to clarify for those who are familiar with the comics, the healer referred to in this chapter is the Morlock Healer. I think he died after the Morlock Massacre or something, I forget. In any case, he was only ever referred to as "Healer".


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"Sam knew there were a lot of members," Tabitha said during the meeting in the War Room. "He didn't know that there were that many though. He thinks that some of them may have invited along mutant hating friends who wasn't technically part of the community. Sam also said that Tribune was the one who outfitted everyone with the body armour and the weapons—well, those who didn't bring their own. He was one of the few that managed to escape unharmed. Apparently most of the ones who escaped were ones that had a lot of experience killing mutants."

"Great, so the ones who escaped are the most dangerous, and all we got were the pawns," Bobby said. "Meanwhile, the FoH now have over a hundred matyrs for the cause."

"All we got were the pawns?" Paige said. "Since when do you play chess?"

"Since never, but that doesn't mean I don't know that pawns are expendable," Bobby replied. "Do we know if the cops are charging anyone yet?"

Storm spread her hands. "Too early to say. They say they are still investigating at this stage. So far the Brotherhood's only contribution is to release what little security footage they had of the battle. Most of their cameras were destroyed in the fight, apparently."

* * *

><p>Piotr sat in the art room by the big windows. He fiddled with the engagement ring and watched as the sunlight sparkled off the many facets of the diamonds. Even after everything with the Brotherhood and the Friends of Humanity, all he could think about was Kitty and whether he should go through with his decision to ask her to marry him.<p>

He was jolted out of his thoughts by the opening of the art room door. He almost guiltily shoved the ring back into its box, and the box back into his pocket as Bobby came walking towards him. Piotr lifted his head to look at Bobby, but Bobby couldn't meet his eyes.

"Umm, hey," Bobby said nervously, running his hand through his head. "I heard you were avoiding Kitty."

Piotr turned his head and looked out the windows. The view was so picturesque and beautiful, and it wasn't Bobby.

"I guess you've been avoiding me too," Bobby said when Piotr didn't answer. He hadn't exactly noticed, as Bobby had been trying to avoid Piotr, Kitty, Rogue, and Gambit. Not an easy task, even if two of them were in the same body. "Look, please don't hold what almost happened with me and Kitty the other day against her. It was my fault."

"I do not think that what happened was anyone's fault," Piotr replied, still looking out the windows. "Sometimes things happen without 'fault' needing to be attached."

"So... why are you avoiding Kitty, if you're not blaming her for anything?" Bobby asked in confusion.

"I do not want to talk to her about this while she is in Rogue's body," Piotr said, standing up. "Rogue is biased."

"Heh, yeah," Bobby said, relaxing a bit as Piotr turned towards him. "She is that."

"With good reason," Piotr added, with a certain coldness to his voice that made Bobby wince.

"Yeah well," Bobby said, and cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Umm, well, you should probably say something to Kitty. She thinks you hate her."

Piotr turned toward the windows once more.

"I could never hate her," he said, putting his hand on the window pane. His voice was so low that Bobby almost didn't hear him.

"That's great," Bobby said, "but I'm not the one who needs to hear it."

Piotr didn't respond and Bobby quietly left the room.

* * *

><p>Hank was jolted out of his concentration in the medlab by the sound of a bell. He glanced around with no idea what it could be, but couldn't see anything he thought would make a noise like that; an oven timer going off. He turned back to his text book and began to read again. He had just gotten halfway through the same paragraph he'd been reading, when he heard the bell again. He sighed, put a bookmark in its place, and got up to do a better inspection.<p>

He heard the bell two more times before he finally figured out where it was coming from: the cloning chamber. Upon further inspection, Hank discovered that the discreet read out display said "COMPLETED". For a moment he just stared at it, still coming to terms that the day they had all been waiting for had finally arrived. Then he went back to his desk and located the instructions that Forge had written up for him.

Hank returned to the cloning machine, turned it off and opened up the door. Kitty's clone looked blankly at him. There were a number of tubes attached to her naked body, which released themselves with a hissing noise when Hank located the appropriate lever. Once Hank was satisfied that the tubes were out of the way, he pulled another small lever. The platform upon which Kitty's clone was resting lifted up at the foot and moved forward so that she was in a laying down position.

Hank located a hospital gown and laid it over her to preserve her dignity, then proceeded with his check up. He hadn't gotten very far into it when he heard a faint sigh, and when his turned to look, her eyes focused on him.

"Dr McCoy?" she inquired.

Hank blinked in surprise. He had definitely not expected her to have any awareness of who she was, let alone who he was. She was a clone, after all, made from an unusual biogel he couldn't replicate and a blood sample he had taken from the original Kitty when she had given a blood donation prior to the fatal mission.

"Ahh, Kitty, you're awake," Hank said.

"Where am I?" she asked..

"You're in the medlab," Hank replied. "I'm just giving you a check up."

Kitty's clone frowned. Something didn't feel right. None of it felt right. In fact a lot of it didn't feel at all. And why wasn't she wearing the hospital gown properly?

"I don't understand," she said. "What's going on?"

"There has been an incident," Hank said. "But don't worry, you're going to be just fine. I'm just doing this check up to confirm that, and I promise I will explain everything in good time."

Inwardly, Hank was a little worried. He had not expected Kitty's clone to be anything but a shell. For her to have her own mind, even if it was a cloned mind... He wasn't at all sure what that meant, or if it changed things.

* * *

><p>"It changes nothing," Psylocke said a little later after doing an inspection of the clone's mind. "Her memories are much like what Kwannon's were; mere shadows of the real thing, fragmented, primarily knowledge-based, and lacking in any emotion. However the cloning technology works, it is not sufficient to completely clone the mind and the soul of the original person. Kitty can quite safely be transferred to the clone body, the nature of the clone's mind means that there will be no fear of Kitty's true mind being rejected, and the merging of their minds will likely be seamless and quick."<p>

"Great," said Gambit, sitting beside Rogue while Kitty's clone waited in the room next door. "Let's do this already."

"Did you need to do anything to prepare?" Hank asked Psylocke with a slight shrug. "All her tests came up fine; she appears to be completely healthy physically."

"No, I am rested well enough to do it now," Psylocke said, and looked to Rogue and Kitty. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Go for it," Rogue said.

Psylocke nodded. She sought out Kitty's mind to extract it from Rogue's and came up against a wall, or rather, a box. It was not a very good box, for Psylocke could still sense Kitty's thought patterns, but it did prevent her from being able to take hold of Kitty's mind. Psylocke frowned.

"Kitty's blocking me," Psycloe said.

"She had better not be," Gambit said, his voice hard with suspicion.

"Ugh, she's just being a sulk," Rogue said, sounding irritated. "Kitty, I know you can hear me. It's time for you to move into your new body—and out of my head."

_"What's the point?"_ Kitty asked, and to Psylocke's frustration, did not come out of her box far enough for her to catch her. _"Pete hates me. I can't seem to stop lusting after Bobby. By rights I should be dead anyway."_

"You have to be kidding me," Rogue said.

_"Can't you just merge me with the Kitty already in your head?" _Kitty asked.

"Short answer: no," Rogue replied, glaring at the wall angrily. "It's time for you to go. Take your pathetic little 'oh woe is me I wish I was dead' nonsense to your own body."

_"I don't wish I was dead. I'm only acknowledging that by rights I should be dead," _Kitty replied. _"And maybe I should be. Pete would be better off without me. He doesn't need a girlfriend who's always thinking about someone else. I suck."_

"I completely agree," said Rogue. "You do suck. Now get out of my head you selfish, self-absorbed, little brat!"

If Rogue actually believed that this would motivate Kitty to come out of her box, she was very much mistaken. Psylocke, the only other person who had been privy to Kitty's half of the conversation, gave a sigh.

"Someone go get Pete," Psylocke said.

"I volunteer," Gambit said, and he passed Olivier to Rogue as he got up.

"Try not to hurt and/or maim him, sugah," Rogue said as she seated Olivier on her lap.

"I make no promises," Gambit replied ominously.

He left the medlab and headed to the art room; at this time of day, that was the most likely place to find him. If not, the next place to check would be the computer room. As it was, Gambit found Piotr in the art room, working on his latest painting. Gambit stalked over to him.

"You need to come to the medlab and talk some sense into your girlfriend," Gambit said, and Piotr stiffened slightly as he took in Gambit's harsh tone and stance. "The clone body's all ready for her to move into, but she won't let Betsy take her out of Rogue's head."

Piotr put down his paintbrush and palate, confused, but willing to co-operate.

"Of course but," Piotr said to Gambit as the older man turned his head and began stalking out of the art room, "why won't she let Betsy—"

"Ask her yourself," Gambit said.

Piotr decided it might be safer if he didn't ask Gambit any more questions. He was very much aware of how possessive Gambit could get about Rogue, and although he hadn't witnessed it first hand, he had heard about Gambit threatening to kill her rather than let Sinister's psyche say in control of her body. A dangerous man, but one who would do anything to protect those he loved. Piotr admired that, even if he was in the awkward position of being on the receiving end.

They got back down to the medlab. Gambit took Olivier back from Rogue as Psylocke explained the situation:

"Kitty thinks you'd be better off without her, amongst other things," Psylocke said. "She's not coming far enough out of that annoying little box of hers for me to grab her, let alone control Rogue's body, so I shall project your mind into Rogue's head in order for you two to talk."

"Very well," Piotr replied.

He wasn't entirely sure what they thought he would do, but he was going to try anyway. He sat down and relaxed his body, and Psylocke projected him into Rogue's head. Piotr found himself sitting on a bench in a mental recreation of the Xavier school gardens with a large box in front of him. It was not entirely accurate, for there was a stone fountain which had two figures in the middle who looked suspiciously like Betsy and Rogue. Piotr cleared his throat as he looked around.

_"Katya?" _he called.

There was a long silence, and then:

_"Petey?"_ Kitty's voice was tentative and cautious, and coming from the box in front of him.

_"Katya,"_ Piotr said more firmly this time and putting his hand on the box. _"It is time for you to move into your new body."_

_"I... I know..."_

_"Why do you not wish to go?"_

_"It's not that I don't want to go, it's just that... I just... I keep thinking that I should be dead."_

_"No," _Piotr said firmly. _"Do not say that. Do not ever say that."_

_"But it's true, Petey. My original body is dead. If we hadn't stolen the cloning machine for Betsy, I wouldn't be here; there'd be no purpose in saving my mind—"_

_"Katya, I do not want to hear you talk this way—"_

_"But maybe if I had, you know, died, then maybe you wouldn't... wouldn't hate me now."_

Piotr was somewhat disturbed by Kitty's pathetic tone. "Pathetic" was never a word he'd ever thought he would use to describe Kitty. Strong, vibrant, determined, but never pathetic.

_"I do not hate you, Katya, and I never will," _he said firmly.

_"Even after everything with Bobby? We nearly kissed! We nearly..."_

Piotr saw a flash of erotic imagery, presumably from Kitty, involving Bobby. Fortunately it was only very brief, but even that was enough to make him feel sick to the stomach.

_"Are you leaving me for him?" _Piotr asked quietly.

_"What? No! Never!"_

_"Then I do not understand why you would think I hate you," _Piotr said patiently. _"I already know you still have those kinds of...feelings...for Bobby. You have told me. You made it clear from when we first started dating how you felt, and you also told me you were trying to get past that. Has that changed?"_

_"N-no. But if Remy hadn't stopped us, I would have kissed—"_

_"I do not believe that,"_ Piotr said. _"I believe that you are far stronger and have much more willpower than you think. It has been many years since you and Bobby have been physically involved, and you have resisted temptation this long. I think that the whole incident has been blown out of proportion because Rogue is involved."_

Piotr remembered then that Rogue was there, listening. He cleared his throat and added: _"You have to admit, Rogue, where Kitty and Bobby are concerned, you are biased. Not unreasonably, but still biased."_

Rogue didn't reply.

_"Then_ _I don't understand," _Kitty said. _"Why have you been avoiding me then, if you're not angry?"_

Piotr's feelings of inadequacy came bubbling to mind, and before he could stop or censor it, Psylocke projected them into Rogue's head. A great deal of shame and embarrassment fell over Piotr as he realised that all three women now knew his fear of under-performing in the bedroom, and that his more experienced girlfriend might leave him, even go back to Bobby, as a result.

The lid of the box flew open and Kitty sat up. With her lower half still in the box, she leaned forward and grabbed Piotr's hands. He didn't look at her.

_"Pete, no, Pete,"_ Kitty said, shaking her head. _"I can't believe you didn't tell me you felt like this I... Petey I swear, I would never do that to you. I swear it. And I'm not really that experienced anyway. I've had only one sexual partner ever, and that was years ago."_

Unbidden a memory from a few weeks ago at breakfast played:

_"Well, I was," Kitty said. "But even though we can keep our minds separate, we are sharing a body, and there are certain, umm...intense things that I can't block out."_

_"Yeah," Rogue said thoughtfully, scooping up a spoonful of food for Olivier. "I suppose three orgasms would be hard to ignore."_

Kitty felt just how hard Piotr took that. How his feelings of inadequacy and worry had increased as a result.

_"You shouldn't be discouraged by that," _Kitty insisted, her grip tightening on Piotr's arms as he steadfastly refused to look at her. _"The opposite in fact! You should be encouraged by that! Rogue and Remy have been having sex since... okay I don't know exactly when, but we all know it was well before they got married. You think it was that good from day one? Of course not, they had lots and lots of practice beforehand. A little too much practice, maybe, going on some of the memories I've seen in Rogue's head."_

Rogue snickered to herself.

_"Pete,"_ Kitty went on. _"The first time we have sex, yeah, it's probably gonna suck. The first few times with Bobby weren't exactly earth shattering. But it'll get better. We'll get to know each other better physically just like we got to know each other, umm, mentally. You know me a lot better now then you did when we first started dating, right?"_

There was a long silence and then Piotr said: _"Right."_

Kitty smiled, feeling very much encouraged.

_"Well, it's the same for sex. Besides, even if it turns out that we both completely suck at sex and never get particularly good at it I still wouldn't leave you for Bobby. He couldn't hold a candle to you. I love you, Petey, with all my heart."_

Piotr finally lifted his head and met Kitty's eyes.

_"I love you too, Katya."_

_"Aww," _Rogue piped up then. _"Very sweet. Will you get out of my head now? I want to go have earth shattering sex with my husband without a hanger on looking in."_

Kitty smiled, knowing that Rogue's comment was half irritation, half tease.

_"Yes," _she said,_ "I'll go now. Sorry I've been such a baby."_

Kitty stepped up out of the box, and the box disappeared. Piotr also disappeared, as did the garden as Psylocke disconnected the link between Piotr and Rogue.

_"Thank you,"_ Rogue said to Kitty.

Psylocke took hold of Kitty's mind, a far easier task than it had been the first time, when Kitty's mind had been so badly stretched. Psylocke located the clone Kitty's head and transferred the real Kitty into it. Kitty felt like everything was clicking into place as she settled into her new head. Even before she looked at her new body, Kitty already felt like she had returned home. At the same time, she felt like she had upgraded to a much more spacious apartment; she had never appreciated just how crowded Rogue's head was, even with all of Rogue's psyches in boxes.

Hank looked up as Kitty sat up on the bed, and stood as Kitty lifted her hands.

"Kitty?" he inquired even as he got the telepathic broadcast from Psylocke that the transfer was complete.

"It's me," Kitty said, sounding amazed. "It's really me. I cannot believe how weird this is. I keep expecting Rogue to pipe up with some comment or to take control of my body, but she's not here... It's just me."

"And thank goodness for that," Rogue said with a slight smirk from the doorway, feeling somewhat more comfortable in her own head too, now that she no longer had a whole second personality pressing against her own. "You're paler than I was back in my covering up days."

"No sun tans in the cloning chamber," Hank said.

"Makes sense," Gambit said, standing by Rogue with Olivier in his arms. "But it doesn't explain why the long hair. Hair doesn't grow that fast."

"Neither do people," Hank replied with a slight smile.

"Touche."

"Now Kitty," Hank said, turning back to his young charge. "You may want to take things easy for the next few days. Your new body is healthy, but its never moved on its own before now. We will need to ease you back into things."

"That's fine, Hank," Kitty said, sounding a little overwhelmed as Piotr walked over to her. "That's perfectly fine."

Piotr took her hands in his.

"There is something that I have been wanting to do, properly, for months," Piotr said.

"Yes?" Kitty asked.

Piotr lifted his hands from her to cup her face and kissed her soundly.

"Aww," said Rogue, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye. "So beautiful. Remy?"

"Oui, ma chère?" Gambit asked.

"Ya think we can impose on Storm or Kurt to mind Olivier for about an hour?"

"Sure," Gambit said, and added wickedly: "But we're not going to need that long."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

No sooner than Kitty stepped into the dining hall, than did a chorus of "Surprise" and "Congratulations" went up. She looked around in amazement as she saw everyone gathered together with party hats, streamers, and balloons. The buffet table was filled with party food, and there was a large banner with the word "Congratulations" printed on it dangling from the ceiling.

"Oh wow," Kitty said with a big grin on her face. "Thank you guys."

"So?" Jubilee said, bounding over to her. "How does it feel to have your own body again?"

"Good, it feels good," Kitty said. "I never really appreciated just how crowded Rogue's mind was. And it's way easier to walk in my own body."

"That's because I have hips," Rogue said teasingly, thrusting one to the side to emphasise her point.

Gambit planted his hands on her hips from behind.

"Oui, you do," he murmured into her ear.

"Okay, save it for later you two," Kitty said. "Wow, this is really weird. I keep expecting you to take over my body any second."

"Ha, yeah same," Rogue said while Gambit kissed her neck. "So glad that's over."

Kitty pointed to Gambit. "And I'm really glad that's over. Awkward much?"

"Well," Bobby said, joining them, but at the same time keeping his distance. "I'm just glad you're alive and well, and you're both in different bodies again. All is right in the world."

Kitty smiled, and it was a genuine pleasant smile. While Kitty had no way of telling how the merging between her true mind and her clone mind was going, there was one thing that had changed; her feelings for Bobby. Perhaps it was because Kitty didn't want to feel the way she felt about Bobby that caused it, for while the clone's mind was not incapable of feeling emotion, it was incapable of remembering the emotions from her pre-existing memories. There was no chance of the clone mind domineering Kitty's true mind, but in that one area, Kitty's lustful feelings for Bobby had been tempered to nothing more than a passing attraction. For the first time in years Kitty was able to look at Bobby, and be in close proximity with him, with only friendship on her mind.

"Yeah, exactly," she said warmly. "I'm feeling very liberated right now. It's great."

She looked at him differently now. Bobby could see it in her eyes that she felt differently about him. A part of him was a little sad, but a greater part relieved, and knew it was for the best. He couldn't explain Kitty's change of heart, of course, he only knew it had happened, and he was hopeful that maybe he'd be able to let go too.

No one looking at Kitty and Bobby had any idea that things were truly over between them, so there was a bit of awkwardness until Piotr joined him. Piotr kissed Kitty, and everyone else relaxed after Bobby made himself scarce again.

About an hour or so into the party, Piotr asked Kitty if he might have a word with her in private. She agreed, and he led her through one of the outside doors to the garden. His heart was pounding so loudly in his chest that he was sure that Kitty could hear it. They didn't go very far, just enough to get away from being seen by anyone in the dining hall. Piotr cleared his throat as they stopped and he took her hands.

"Katya," he said, hid throat feeling very dry, even as he wondered if perhaps the timing wasn't very good after all, and maybe he should wait a couple of weeks. "There is something I wish to ask you."

"Yes?" Kitty asked, wondering at his nervousness.

"Katya, I...I..." Piotr stammered as his carefully prepared speech went out of his mind. "I love you."

"I love you too," Kitty replied, having a sneaking suspicion she knew why Piotr was nervous.

"And I..."

A big, silly grin appeared on Kitty's face.

"Yes," she said.

"I just...I..." Piotr said, mentally cursing himself for his stammering and wishing he could just go back to the party and forget all about this. He took a deep breath, and remembered the beginning of his speech. "When you got stuck in phase I was afraid that you might be gone forever."

"I was afraid of that too," Kitty admitted, and Piotr lifted one hand to cup her face.

"It got me thinking about us, and about what I wanted from life," he went on, taking strength from his own words as his many practices came back to him. "There is much I would like to do. Some of it is reasonable, some of it is not, but the one thing that I want most of all is for you to be with me through all of it. You are my heart, my soul, and my muse, and..."

"Yes," Kitty said when Piotr trailed off helplessly, feeling giddy with anticipation.

"And..." he tried again, then realised he'd forgotten to take the ring out of his pocket.

"Yes."

"Would you..." Piotr wondered why it was so much of a struggle to get the words out even as he held up the jewellery box.

"Pete, yes," Kitty said, grinning at him.

"...marry me?"

Kitty laughed and wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders and neck.

"Yes, absolutely," she said.

"Really?" Piotr asked. "You mean it? I kept wondering... I mean, I had been planning this for weeks. I thought that you getting your new body might be a good time, but after... I wondered if it might be a little soon."

"Do you think that you were the only one re-evaluating their life after I got stuck in phase and thought I was dying?" Kitty asked, smiling. "Petey, I love you. And I know things have been a bit sticky these last few days, but we got everything sorted out this morning, remember? And maybe I didn't handle things so well by withdrawing into a box inside Rogue's head instead of talking to you straight away but—"

"You had Rogue and Remy to contend with," Piotr said, nodding.

"Which was why you wanted to wait before talking to me."

"Exactly."

"And I can't blame you for that."

"And I do not think I can blame you for withdrawing as you did. I do not think that Rogue was very forgiving."

"Definitely not," Kitty said wryly, dropping her arms. "I love her but ever since... Well, Rogue wasn't exactly of a mind to be forgiving. The only way to block off her ill will was that box, and the only reason why I didn't go to my new body straight away was because the idea that you might not... might not... Well, that's just how abhorrent the idea of losing you was to me; I was more willing to face Rogue's wrath than see you look at me with... with..."

Kitty couldn't bring herself to say the words, but Piotr understood. He stroked her cheek gently and Kitty covered his hand with one of her own

"But that's not important now," she said. "What is important is that when I think of all the things I want out of life, the thing I want the most is for you to be with me through it all too."

They kissed, and Piotr slipped the ring onto her finger. Then they headed back inside to tell everyone the good news.

There was much squealing.

* * *

><p>"Ahh, Stormy," Gambit said the next day as he approached her in the hallway with a long white envelope in his hand. "Just the person I was coming to see."<p>

"Oh?" Storm inquired as she stopped in front of him.

"Final invoice," Gambit said, holding out the envelope to her.

"Ahh," Storm said as she accepted the envelope and started to open it with one of her long fingernails. "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not. No one ever does," Gambit replied cheerfully. "You're up for the time it took to do the job, testing and upgrading the security system, and body rental. Although, I did hide the body rental charges in Rogue's hours, because trust me, it is way better if the Guild never finds out a non-member was hanging out in Rogue's head for two months. Besides, I needed to bump up her hours anyway."

"Body rental," Storm repeated with a raised eyebrow as she pulled the invoice out of the envelope.

"Only fair, chère," Gambit said. "She would have helped me a lot more if she hadn't needed to take time out for Kitty's sake. But the good news there is that Rogue's only a Journeyman so her rates are way lower than mine. As one of the best Thieves in the Guild, and the Patriarch, I'm pretty expensive."

Storm caught her breath as her eyes fell on the invoice total. Storm had been quite prepared to pay Gambit and Rogue for their work, even knowing that Gambit wouldn't come cheap. After all, she and the other X-men got paid regularly, why not Gambit and Rogue?

Knowing that didn't make seeing the final total any easier. It would take a huge amount out of their budget, and Storm debated whether she should let Scott see it or not.

"Oh, uhh, before I forget," Gambit said, reaching into his pocket. "There's something else I wanted to give you."

Storm watched with some apprehension as Gambit took out a thin piece of paper and placed it into her reluctantly held out hand. She was surprised, and a little confused, to find a somewhat substantial cheque.

"Remy?" she queried, puzzled.

"You're going some good work at this school, Stormy," Gambit said, trying to sound more casual and less awkward. "Never know, maybe one day we'll send our kids here for training their powers. I mean, I'm sure that Roguey and I could manage, but it never hurts to have another perspective."

"Right," Storm said, understanding what he was really saying. "Well, we'd love to have them."

"Great," Gambit said, then gestured lazily back down the hall. "Anyway, I have to get back to packing."

"Of course," Storm said. "I'll be sure to see you off. And thank you for the donation."

Gambit gave a shrug as he walked off. "Don't mention it."

Storm turned back to return to her office, knowing exactly what Gambit had done. He had told her from the start he couldn't do this job under the radar, that it had to go through the Guild. He had been caught between wanting to do the right thing by her, and having to do the right thing by his family. So, he'd compromised. He had figured out two different totals, one to appease the Guild, the other being what he would have actually charged if he could have done the job under the radar, and wrote up a cheque for the difference. After all, the Thieves Guild had no control over what Gambit chose to spend his money on, so why couldn't he donate to the school if he wanted to?

She opened her office door and smiled to herself.

* * *

><p>There was a small gathering waiting for Rogue, Gambit, and Olivier in the hanger when they arrived. Logan took the liberty of loading their things up in the Blackbird while they said good bye. Kitty gave Rogue a half hug because Rogue was holding Olivier.<p>

"I'm going to miss you," Kitty said, and then smiled at Olivier and touched his nose gently. "I think I'm even going to miss you, Oli."

"Of course you are, he's adorable," Rogue said.

"Well, I'm not going to disagree with you," Kitty said cheekily. "And not just because if I did you'd kick my ass."

Rogue grinned wickedly at her, and then picked up a shoe box that was sitting on her things.

"These are yours," Rogue said, handing Kitty the box.

Kitty recognised the box, but opened it anyway to confirm what was inside; the ballet slippers she had bought. She closed the box and handed it back.

"Keep them," she said. "They fit your feet, not mine."

"I can't dance ballet," Rogue said.

There was no hesitation as Kitty held out her other bare hand. "Wanna learn?"

Rogue stared at Kitty's hand in surprise.

"Why?" she asked.

Kitty shrugged. "I figure the copy of me in there could use with an update."

Rogue hesitated for a moment, then turned to Gambit, who was talking with Scott, Madelyne, and Nate.

"Remy?" Rogue said. "Can you hold Oli for a second?"

She had a feeling if she turned on her powers then, she'd absorb Olivier as well as Kitty.

"Oh, sure," Gambit replied.

Rogue passed him over, and with a thank you, she took Kitty's hand. She turned her powers on, and absorbed Kitty at a medium rate; slow enough to be able to shut it off quickly before doing Kitty any major harm, but fast enough to smooth the flow of memories that Kitty wanted to share. In addition to the ballet dancing memories, Rogue also picked up a number of memories from their time together, although it was odd seeing the exact same things from Kitty's perspective.

The one thing that stood out the most was something that had been too subtle for her to sense during their time together, but much too powerful to miss sensing now: Trust. Even as Rogue had struggled with completely trusting Kitty with her body, Kitty had always trusted that Rogue would look after her. Even after everything with Bobby, Kitty still knew she could trust Rogue, no matter what.

Rogue broke off the absorption, and as Kitty swayed on her feet, Piotr put his arms around her to steady her. Rogue looked at her for a long moment, knowing that if she said anything about it, she would just start crying before she got very far. Rogue hated crying.

"Sorry," Rogue said finally. "I might have my powers under control now, but the side-effects are still brutal."

"It's okay," Kitty replied while rubbing her head. "I knew what I was in for."

"Yeah. Anyway, umm, thanks for the dancing lessons," Rogue said, feeling awkward.

"You're welcome."

Kitty gave Rogue a proper hug this time. Rogue then hugged Piotr and Jubilee. Bobby only offered his hand, quite mindful of Gambit looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Psylocke, Tabitha, Paige, Logan, Kurt, and Hank all got hugs too, as did Scott and Madelyne. Nate got a new toy as an early third birthday present.

"Have a good trip back, Rogue," Scott said. "Take care of yourself."

"I will," Rogue replied. "Try not to get replaced by any more clones and mistaken for dead, okay?"

Scott smirked. "Okay."

Finally, Rogue, Gambit, Olivier and Storm boarded the Blackbird and left for New Orleans.

* * *

><p>Henri was waiting for them when they arrived. Storm helped them with their bags, greeted Henri, and then took off back for New York. Rogue got Olivier settled in his car seat, Gambit and Henri loaded up the car with their things.<p>

"So," Henri said. "Dare I ask what the final invoice looks like?"

Gambit pulled out a copy he had made just for this occasion from one of his many pockets and thrust it at Henri. Henri took it apprehensively while Gambit shoved the last bag in the back.

"Huh," Henri said, sounding surprised as he looked at the paper. "You surprise me, Remy. I thought for sure I was going to have to argue with you about this."

"See?" Gambit said smugly as he closed the door. "I am well aware of my responsibilities to the Guild."

"I guess you are," Henri said, handing the paper back to him as they walked around to the front of the car. "Désolé, mon frère, but you can be very self-serving at times."

"We're thieves, aren't we supposed to be self-serving?"

"Touche."

They all got into the car, and Henri started off for home.

"By the way," Henri said with a slight smirk on his face as they drove off. "I organised a uniform for Rogue. I left it on your bed."

"Uniform?" Rogue repeated suspiciously.

"Oh gooood," Gambit said slyly. "That'll be the domestic staff uniform. I got you on the roster starting next week."

"Aww man," Rogue complained. "I don't want to prance around the Guild Hall looking like a fetish model."

"Good, you're not supposed to prance," Henri said. "You're supposed to clean."

"You should try it on when we get back. You know, make sure it fits properly," Gambit said.

"Sure Remy," said Henri, smirking. "Make sure it 'fits'."

"Actually I'm serious," Gambit said. "I wouldn't want ma chère to fall out of that thing."

"Oh this conversation just keeps getting better and better," Rogue said.

"Think of it this way," Henri said, grinning at her in the rear view mirror. "Now you have a whole lot of incentive not to earn cleaning duty again."

"You suck."

"Nope, I think Merci's the one who—" Gambit started to say.

"If you finish that sentence I will hit you," Henri said.

"Hey, we're all adults here," Gambit said. "Well, except for Olivier, but I don't expect he cares. Oh, Henri, have you got everything set up for that announcement I wanted to do?"

"Oui. Are you sure you want to go through with it?"

Gambit gave him a look. Henri regarded him for a moment.

"Yeah," Henri said. "Stupid question."

* * *

><p>The following afternoon those of the Thieves Guild who were in New Orleans gathered in the council room. Gambit sat on his desk while he waited for everyone to settle with a smug little smile on his face. Since Gambit had little patience for meetings, especially ones that didn't start on time, the moment the clock changed to 4:00pm, he called for attention. Fortunately, he didn't need to resort to blowing something up to get it.<p>

"Today is a historic day," Gambit said, the picture of sincerity. "For today, I am introducing a new position into the Guild."

There was some murmuring, which was quickly silenced.

"A new minister to be exact. The first person to take up this mantle is someone who has actually been fulfilling this role for some years now, and I believe that it is only just that he finally gets the recognition that he deserves," Gambit said. "Emil Lapin, please step forward."

Emil started at the sound of his name. He stood, a smile growing on his face as he realised where Gambit was going with this. Gambit picked up a small box from his desk as he stood to face his cousin.

"Mes fils et filles," Gambit said formally. "May I present our first Court Jester—erm I mean Minister of Morale."

There was a mix of laughter and applause as Gambit presented Emil with a signet ring depicting his new office.

"I didn't think you'd actually do it," Emil said, shaking his head at Gambit as he accepted the ring. "I thought even you have standards."

"I do have standards, mon ami," Gambit replied, grinning back at him. "I always win. And you should know better than to try and call my bluff by now."

Emil chuckled wickedly. "Oh we have interesting times ahead of us, Remy. Very interesting times."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>Just the epilogue to go.


	17. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

The man known as Tribune looked up as his secretary entered the office and frowned. His secretary was on vacation, she shouldn't even be in the building. Before he could reach for his gun, however, his secretary changed shape.

"Mystique," he said coldly.

"Long time, no see, Graydon," Mystique replied as she walked over to him.

"How'd you get past the DNA scanners?" Graydon demanded.

He made a move for the gun he kept under his desk top, but Mystique was too fast for him, roundhouse kicking him away from his desk before he could do more than graze the handle. Mystique jumped over the desk and pressed him to the wall, a knife to his neck.

"Go ahead, do it, mutie," Graydon said.

Mystique smiled nastily.

"Have I ever told you how much you look like your father?" she asked.

"He's not my father!"

"You have his temper too."

"Lies," Graydon spat. "All lies. You're not my mother."

Mystique's smile broadened into a sinister grin.

"I thought you'd be interested in knowing you're an uncle," she said, "of a mutant boy."

Graydon stared at her.

"It's not true," he said. "I don't even have any siblings!"

Mystique released him.

"Just like Victor and I aren't your biological parents?" she asked as she headed to the open window. "So glad you managed to make it out of the Brotherhood battle alive, Graydon. We wouldn't want your little club to have to mourn its leader, now would we? It might give them ideas."

Mystique climbed out through the window. Graydon grabbed his gun and rushed to the window as Mystique escaped, light on her feet. He shot at her multiple times, but each bullet missed their mark. He cursed as she moved out of range and disappeared from sight.

"This isn't over."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>

Thanks to everyone for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to review. I really appreciate it.

And an extra special thanks to Hopey Hannigan for all her help.

I have no idea what the next chapter fic is going to be. I'm toying with half a dozen different ideas at the moment. What am I saying? I'm always toying with a bunch of different ideas, heh.


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